Count Your Blessings

Friday, April 11, 2008

1. Count Your Blessings

"It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night."1

According to Michael Shannon, "In Reed, North Carolina, you will find the Reed gold mine. It was first excavated in 1799 when Conrad Reed discovered a strange rock on the Reed farm. In 1802, a jeweler in Fayetteville offered Reed $3.50 for the rock. It turns out the rock was gold and was actually worth $3,600 dollars. What did Reed do with the rock for three years? He used it as a doorstop at his house. How often are we oblivious to the true value of things?"2

I don't know about you but I find it all too easy to be blind to the endless blessings daily at my door step and take these for granted. I am afraid that this is especially so in much of the free world where most of us have never suffered real persecution, experienced terrorism first hand, gone hungry, been homeless, and pretty much have all of our personal needs and many of our wants—often extravagant wants—met.

And, tragically, here in the West so many feel that the world owes them a living. Too soon we forget that the freedoms we enjoy were paid dearly for us by previous generations—many of whom gave their lives to purchase our freedom. How soon we forget that "eternal vigilance is still the price of liberty [freedom]," and that "blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."3

Every day I make an effort to thank God for all the incredible blessings that I experience daily. As the chorus of the old time hymn we used to sing with great enthusiasm in years gone by encourages:

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.4

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please open the eyes of my understanding so that I will no longer be blind to the endless blessings you have given to me every day of my life. Most of all I thank you for the incredible blessing that you have given to all mankind—the blessing of giving your Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins, and for your gift of forgiveness and that of eternal life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus name, amen."

1. Psalm 92:1-2 (NIV).
2. J. Michael Shannon, Source: Preaching.com http://tinyurl.com/2cxgrg
3. Psalm 33:12
4. Johnson Oatman, Jr.

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