Count Your Blessings, Name Them One By One

Sitting in the confines of one's home for the fourth month in a row... the world being slowed down by an invisible virus, counting one's blessing might not seem like the most sensible thing to do for many of us- let alone listing them by name!! But can a Christian believer truly not count his/her blessing, no matter what the circumstances?

It's a Sunday today- a day that would usually be spend in worshiping Almighty God along with others of the same mind. But as I sat at my desk; attending virtual worship this Sunday afternoon, the thought that crossed my mind is that am I really counting my blessings amidst of all the surrounding scenario?! We often, from time to time involve in retrospection, but how many times do we introspect?

"Count your blessings" somewhere is rooted in the fact of being humble, of knowing and believing that it is not my luck or my secured situation in life or my wisdom that has kept me going this far. Often trusting God becomes a cliché rather than a true involuntary practice of the heart. And so it is paramount that we trust God and we keep our minds fixed on Him. It is a willful act that we must do to think upon Him and remember Who He is and what He has done. Apostle 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. There was a powerful thought that was shared in today's worship that made me think- we start loving and worshiping the things around us- our social security, our jobs, sometimes people around us and that's when we forget to love God. Often there is circle in our lives: we get caught up in the things and achievements and good things of the world (which in reality are His blessings and graces to us) we feel fulfilled, God takes a back seat in our minds, gradually things seem to fall apart without God's grace, as a result we are humbled and come to the point of reconciling with Him and promising to stick to Him, but once again when life goes on smoothly we start to drift apart again and get caught in the affairs of the world. 

Now it is very important to understand that by sticking to God I'm not doing Him a favour, neither am I sticking to Him in anticipation of a smooth life. We stick to Him because it is what we should do. Truth is no matter what we do or how good we try to be, we still can't make God to bless us... He blesses us not because we deserve it, but because He chooses to bless us. So when we are getting something in spite of not being deserving, how can we not count them or even worse forget?!

Before leaning to count one's blessings, it is very important to learn contentment. Contentment is what eventually paves the path for us to be able to count the blessings. And since I'm talking of contentment and if I do not bring the context of Apostle Paul's own life, I won't be doing justice. I have always loved this verse from Philippians "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances" (4:11). One has to be indeed very humble to be content in what one has and where they are placed in life. And it is not some character in him that brought forth this contentment, it was the constant presence of Christ which made his contentment possible (Hebrews 13:5). And he didn't learn this contentment overnight, but it was over time through lot of suffering. Sometimes God allows suffering to help us be mindful of all of the many smaller graces that He has given us in our lives. One of the first steps into spiritual decay is to refuse to give God thanks after experiencing His goodness and seeing His power actively in our lives. If we fail to acknowledge Him, we can begin to feel proud and self-sufficient, which is a dangerous road to be on. Rather we should acknowledge God's grace in our lives and stay on the straight and narrow path. Paul knew firsthand, even in a dark, dank prison cell, these blessings stand fast.

Comparison is like a worm that eats away a healthy mind. Just comparing our better state to somebody who is in a worse state does not necessarily make us feel better- in fact that brings us in the dangerous territory of "pride".  But if we thank God for everything that we have that others might not be so fortunate to have, then our thanksgiving can change our perspective and bring us contentment. We need to maintain Paul’s attitude of thankfulness for all things and in even the most dark and unfair of circumstances.  We need to make a point of it to thank God- count our blessings, name them one by one.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new to me very morning; great is your faithfulness". If we find a few minutes to introspect our lives we can surely see there is so much to be thankful for, and so many blessings to count. If only we could see all that God does, we would have more mercies than we could ever account for. The adversary- the old serpent tries to cloud our hearts and minds so that we might not see His light of grace and acknowledge His many blessings in our lives. Let us not let him succeed in keeping us away from the love of Christ and the many blessings of God. We must always be thankful to God. So let's not waste any more time, instead

Count your many blessings
Name them one by one
And it will surprise you
What the lord has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done