Reeva,
You are so right we have many blessings to count even when things are really 
tough.  Thanks for sharing.  Did you write this?
Huggs,

Virgie and lady Hoshi
doing business at

www.vunderwood.ktostemtech.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reeva Parry" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 1:38 AM
Subject: Count Your Blessings


Count Your Blessings


Life comes at us fast. Sometimes, good things
happen, and other times, we face an onslaught of
difficulty after difficulty. When the waves of
strife drive our faces into the dirt, we must not
give up, lose heart, or stop trusting God. But
lest "trusting God" becomes a mere cliché for us,
God has ordained things for us to do to keep our
minds fixed upon Him. It is a willful act that we
must do to think on Him, and remember Who He is
and what He has done. As Paul says in Colossians
3:2, "Set your mind on the things above, not on
the things that are on earth." We are vulnerable
to getting overwhelmed by the nonsense of this
world, and it is imperative that we remember some
things, particularly, that which is true about
the many blessings which we have in Christ.

Surely, we can think of instances of answered
prayer, of God's provision, of God's graces, of
God's good and perfect gifts to us, and of the
mercy of God. We have the memories of past acts
of God on our behalf, and we have the promise of
our future inheritance in Christ to look forward
to. In the meantime, we have the Word of God to
remind us of the good heart of God. We should
benefit from all three. Many times in Israel's
history, after a wonderful work of God, the
Israelites would dedicate a song or build an
altar in memory of what God had done. They were
to tell their children of the mighty acts of God,
lest future generations forget His  faithfulness.
We, too, need to look back and remember what God
has done for us. There is hope in remembering
where we were and  seeing how God, in all wisdom,
delivered us from ourselves or from enemies. God
is so gracious, and we cannot take His grace
for  granted. Rather, we should thank Him for His
provision, trust Him in the present, and think on
the great blessings coming to us in  the coming kingdom.


Not too long ago, I went through some very
serious experimental eye surgeries because of
double vision that was causing havoc in my body.
God did not heal the double vision. While some of
the secondary symptoms went away, many new ones
came up. As I  spent months just lying in bed in
pain, not seeing well, and experiencing near
constant nausea and vertigo, it was easy to
be  discouraged at times, to say the least (many
of these symptoms are still present). When my
wife came home from work each day, she had me
list out five to ten blessings of the day. They
were very simple things, from being able to eat
to being able to have a nap and get some rest. Of
course, she was number one on the list, until she
decided she would put me to the test by not
letting me count any of the blessings I had
listed previously. It got harder and harder to
think of other graces of God, but they were
there. I just  had to think harder and look
deeper, even if it took awhile, which it
sometimes did. I was alive, I had a roof over my
head, I had a wife  who loved me, even though
this happened months into our marriage, I had
food to eat, and I had clothes on my back. Paul
said in 1  Timothy 6:8, "If we have food and
covering, with these we shall be content."
Elsewhere, we read that he learned to be content
in any  circumstance (Philippians 4:11), and it
was the constant presence of Christ which made
his contentment possible (Hebrews 13:5). When I
read these statements from Paul in the past, I
kind of thought he must have been a
super-Christian, the likes of which we
normal-Christians could never be. Yet, given the
suffering he went through, he had many chances to
learn the contentment which he came to possess.
As we go through suffering, the Lord points us
toward the things we typically miss when things
are easy and  good. Yet thankfulness is a choice,
and it is one that we need to make, counting our
blessings, even if they seem small, unfair,
or  ridiculous. Paul didn't overlook the basics.
In fact, he was happy to praise God if only he
had the basics. We need his attitude of
thankfulness for all things, and in even the most
dire and unfair of circumstances as Paul regularly faced.

We cannot let the daily blessings with which God
showers us pass us by without giving Him credit.
One of the first steps into spiritual decay is to
refuse to give God thanks after experiencing His
goodness and seeing His power manifested on our
behalf (Romans 1:21). God has been faithful, and
He always will be. Even when we lack faith, still
He is faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). Great is  His
faithfulness, and His mercies are new every
morning (Lamentations 3:23). Every day, new
mercies come our way. Every day God's thoughts
toward us are so numerous that they cannot even
be counted (Psalm 139:17-18). So already we have
more things to be thankful for than we can even
name or count. We have "every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians
1:3). Eternity in paradise is ours. When all else
fails, God never fails, and His mercy, love, and
kindness endure forever (Psalm 52:1).

There is so much to be thankful for, and so many
blessings to count. In fact, if only we could see
all that God does, we would have  more mercies
than we could ever account for. Let us not let
the missiles of the devil knock us down, such
that we forget that we have Christ and the many
blessings of God. We should never lose hope, and
we should always have reason to be thankful. So
what  are you waiting for? Start counting!