Count Our Blessings

Count Our Blessings


Below is a “mini-message” that I sent out earlier but worth reading again and some haven’t seen it. It really got me to thinking about “blessings” and I felt led to do this lesson.

Weed Hunts from Max Lucado

God’s love sprouts around us like lilacs, but we go on weed hunts! How many flowers do we miss in the process? If you look long enough, you’ll find something to bellyache about. So quit looking!

Lift your eyes off the weeds. Collect your blessings. Catalog His kindnesses. Assemble your reasons for gratitude. “Always be joyful” is what Paul tells us in 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 . “Pray continually and give thanks, whatever happens. This is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.”

Gratitude is always an option. Make it your default emotion and you’ll find yourself giving thanks for the problems of life. Who knows what you might record in your journal:

Mondays. Oh boy–my favorite! Final exams. I can hardly wait! “Impossible,” you say? How do you know?

How do you know until you give the day a chance? Thank God!

There is a legend about two angels. Two angels who were sent to earth to gather up the prayers of humans. One was to fill his basket with the petitions and requests of mankind. The other was to gather their prayers of thanksgiving. Sometime later they went back to the Father’s house. One had a basket heaped high and running over with the innumerable petitions and pleas of men. The other returned with a sad and heavy heart, because his basket was almost empty.

The thanks of men were rarely heard on earth, even though the angel had searched diligently. Do you think maybe this little story describes our society perfectly? This is a stark reminder to us not to forget our many blessings, to be grateful for what we do have and not to forget the thanksgiving side of our prayers.

It is amazing how people turn to God when they are in trouble, but when things are going well, God is conveniently forgotten. Instead of our continued negativity, ungratefulness and continued whining and complaining - if we truly examine our heart and circumstances, we will find that we have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings that they’re actually impossible to count.

We are all blessed to the extent that we should continually be counting our blessings, continually giving thanks – looking at the bright side of things, instead of continually finding fault with our circumstances and with our brothers and sisters. So it is the aim this morning for us to consider the need to count our blessings every day.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5

We are called to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, in everything we do… not only when we’re in trouble. In all our ways, in everything we do… and if we really did that, we would find that we really have no reason to complain.

Instead, when we acknowledge the part that the Lord plays in our life, we will get on our knees and praise Him for His tender mercies, for the many, many blessings we have in our life. And we will find that shortly after that, our Peace and joy will be restored.

We need to be continually reminded to count our blessings, because it is so easy to fall back on self-pity and to count our woes.

Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. Psalm 103:1-2

And how easy it is for us to remember the woes and forget the benefits. To forget the blessings. Let’s look at how many we do forget.

Perhaps the greatest blessing of all is found in verse 3 of Psalm 103: “He forgives all my sins…”

What greater blessing is there than the forgiveness of our sins…? Without that blessing, that very great blessing, the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Jesus, there would really be no point to life… for without it, we would all be doomed to eternal judgement.

Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me

When we are a thankful person, when we do count our blessings by praising the Lord, when we actually realize how blessed we really are, we will have a change of heart, a change of attitude… and our joy will be restored because of it.

And when we have joy and thankfulness in our heart, it’s almost impossible to harbor any bitterness. If we walk around with an attitude of Thanksgiving, of gratefulness, it’s very difficult to become angry or upset. It’s a mindset of thankfulness that gives us that great peace.

There is just something that takes place when thankfulness is a part of our lives. It’s called Grace. The grace that we have been given through our blessings allows us to be gracious to others.

The small things in life… there is just so much that we take for granted.

A pat on the back. A kind word. A loving word. A word of encouragement. A full moon. A hot bath. An empty parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious sunset. Hot soup. A good night’s sleep. Eyes that can see! Ears that hear. Fingers that can touch…. Now we can go on all morning…

But we are told: Don’t forget. Stop worrying about missing the world’s grand rewards of fame, wealth and success. Rather focus on and enjoy its tiny delights. Because there are plenty for all of us.

The problem is, it takes grace, it takes love and compassion, it takes time to stop and notice. So often we get wrapped up in the troubles of our lives, that our complaining eventually becomes habit, a miserable part of our ungrateful existence.

It takes time, it takes an act of Grace to stop for a minute, to consider our priorities, to put things into perspective. The speed at which most of us live our lives is quite ridiculous… the hectic pace of life today quickly becomes an uncaring habit.

So this morning let us, to take the time, to stop, and smell the roses. Appreciate the good things.

Look around, consider our circumstances, the people and family around us… and if we can see them with eyes that see, that alone is one of life’s great blessings… the miracle of sight! Can you imagine being blind? Without ever being able to savor the beauty around us? What an amazing blessing… the little things that we take for granted.

So let us stop, pause and appreciate the things around us… the people in our life, the wondrous Creation… change our attitude… look on the bright side… count our blessings…. stop and smell the roses…!

Here’s an attitude for us. Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar, was once mugged and robbed of his wallet. He wrote these words in his diary.

"Let me be thankful first, because I have never been robbed before.

Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life.

Third, because although they took my money, it was not much.

And fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who was the robber. There but for the grace of God, go I."

An attitude of thankfulness, of seeing the brighter side of life, despite our circumstance, which automatically brings joy.

When we are thankful our vision improves. Not our sight! But our vision. Not our eyes, but our outlook, our attitude. To be thankful will help us have an optimistic and hopeful outlook on life, something that is noticeably lacking amongst many of us.

We will begin to see the donut and not the hole,

We'll see the glass half full and not half empty.

We'll see the potential and the opportunity and not the problem.

The problem with many of us is that we don’t have the grace to see the glass half full. When we look at the glass, we see it half empty, but we also see that it’s dirty, it’s the wrong size, the wrong color and really not the one we wanted…

Optimist comes from Latin word "optimus" which means "best".

Pessimist from Latin word "pessimus" which means "worst". It’s our duty in the love of Christ to look for the best, not the worst.

Look for things to be thankful for and we will find plenty, and our joy will be full.

But to be thankful, to have an attitude of thanksgiving, we actually need to recognize what our blessings are. Sometimes we walk around in a state of oblivion, too wrapped up in our own self-centeredness to even recognize how truly blessed we really are… We Americans take so many things for granted.

So many things we take for granted. We need to Count our blessings. But we need to start by asking God to open our eyes to actually see our possessions in Christ. Begin by recognizing all that we have in Christ. This will change our entire perspective and enable us to praise and thank God for what we have.

Praise the LORD! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how fitting! Psalm 147:1