Counting Your Blessings
It is easy to take the blessings that we have in life for granted. With this Thanksgiving/Christmas season approaching I feel on my heart that I should write about the blessings in life that God provides us with.
How can an entire world be created by someone just saying, "let there be light."? How can a human being be formed from just a handful of dust and a rib? How can someone be rejected and betrayed century after century yet still be merciful, when they have the power to destroy everything that is against them? How can anybody be willing enough to sacrifice their own life/sacrifice their own son for the sake of their persecutors? God has done all of this. We are the people he has created and betrayed him. We are the persecutors he has sacrificed himself for. He is the reason we can live our lives in complete peace and know that we have a home in heaven as long as we maintain salvation. This should ultimately be enough for us, but for some reason it just isn't.
In the beginning before sin cursed mankind, God created Adam along with things in the world to bless him with:
- A garden for Adam to live and work on. (Gen. 1:8)
- Trees that were "pleasant to the sight and good for food." (Gen. 1:9)
- A river of gold. (Gen. 1:11)
- A partner that was of his own flesh. (Gen. 1:22)
God provided Adam a home, a purpose, food, riches, and a wife. He intended to bless mankind before the world fell into sin, meaning that being blessed does not make you vain or evil as long as you are using them for God's glory. Another thing to recognize is that God did not give Adam all these blessings at once. They were revealed to him over time. When God saw that Adam was lonely, he created the different species of animals for Adam to bond with. It took time before God finally created Eve, who gave Adam the companionship he was searching for.
Throughout life we gain blessings, and we lose blessings. We wish we could just know why on earth God would give us something that makes us happy just to take it away. God gives and takes away all throughout the Old Testament: Job was a wealthy man until everything turned upside down. But overtime God made him more blessed than he was before he lost everything. Ruth lost her husband and was faced with leaving her home country in order to pursue a relationship with God. Because she was faithful God blessed her with a new and Godly husband. Hannah longed for a child but could not bear one, until God blessed her with pregnancy. Hannah was so grateful that she willingly sent her only son away after his birth so he could be dedicated to the Lord. The Lord then blessed her with more children to make up for the one she dedicated. Similarly, Abraham and Sarah longed for children but were too old to have any. God surprised them by blessing them with Isaac. However, one day God told Abraham to kill Isaac out of sacrifice. Seeing that Abraham was willing to sacrifice a very valuable blessing, God stopped him from killing his son.
- "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)
It is important that we are aware that while blessings may come and go, God will always be good. We must trust that just because a blessing doesn't work out for us, that does not mean that he doesn't have something better planned. I used to get very low whenever I felt that I was lacking something in my life. It kept me from seeing other areas that I was still blessed in.
People tend to get the mindset that they need to be the very best and have the very best in order to be truly satisfied in life. But in reality, a lower-class family of six who don't have a ton of money but still all love each other and the Lord appear to be far happier than a rich movie star living in a mansion and no time for the Lord. The difference between the movie star and the family is that the movie star has everything they could ever want on earth but is still hungry for more, while the family knows that love is all they could ever need. While they may not be rich, they know that they are at least blessed to be together and have a roof over their heads.
When you feel that you don't have anything, open your heart and recognize that you do. There may be something that you long for and don't have, but that doesn't mean that God won't bless you with it in the future and that doesn't mean you aren't blessed with other things now! Find your joy and gratitude over today's blessings.
Never forget that there are no wordly blessings that will ever hold more value than the eternal blessing we all inherit from the blood of Christ. This is the blessing that we should all be most thankful for. No blessing on earth can be compared with the blessing those who lean on Christ are promised.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
- Emma
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