Count Your Blessings; Name Them One By One…
It’s that time of year again. It’s nearly Thanksgiving Day! What a wonderful day set aside each year to get together with our friends and family members to catch up and enjoy a meal and fellowship with one another, thanking God especially on that day for the blessings He has given to us!
It really is a good feeling to know that so many are aware, that day, of the blessings that they have been showered with throughout the year, but really, everyday should be a day of such thankfulness!
When thinking of how blessed I am, I can’t help but to think of the church song, Count Your Blessings! The chorus reads…
“Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done!”
We should all ask ourselves, “What has He done for Me?”
Personally, I have been blessed beyond what I could ever deserve!
Counting my Blessings…
1) I have been raised in a Christian home where my parents taught my brother and I the importance of obeying God’s commands.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 KJV
2) I have been born into a country where I am free to worship in the way that I see is right!
3) I have my Bible, God’s inspired Word, readily available to me, so that I can read what God expects of me and read what I must do in order to be saved!
• I had to HEAR the Gospel… “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” Mark 7:16 KJV
• I had to BELIEVE the Gospel… “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:31 KJV
• I had to REPENT of my past sins… Jesus said in Luke 13:3 “I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” KJV
• I had to CONFESS that Jesus Christ Is The Son of God… “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10 KJV
• I had to BE BAPTIZED FOR THE REMISSION OF MY SINS… “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” I Peter 3:21 KJV and Acts 2:38 KJV states “Then Peter said unto them, REPENT, AND BE BAPTIZED every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ FOR the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
• I have to try my best to LIVE A FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN LIFE… “… be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Revelation 2:10 KJV
4) I am given God’s Grace and Mercy!
Even though I am sure to mess up and disappoint God, if I have fulfilled His commandments and I am truly repentant of my sins, I can be forgiven and by God’s Grace and Mercy, I can be made clean again and can have a home in Heaven with Him one day! Ephesians 1:7 KJV says, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” And in Ephesians 2:4 KJV “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us”
I recently heard my preacher say that,
“ God’s Grace is His way of giving us what we don’t deserve, but God’s Mercy is His way of not giving us what we really deserve!”
5) I am blessed with LOVE all around me! I can love and be loved by God, my family and my friends.
John 3:16 KJV “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And in I John 4:7-8 KJV, the Bible says, “Beloved let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
6) Then there are the blessings of my health, doctors, food, warm shelter, clothing, nature…
When counting my blessings, the list goes on and on and on…
There is also a promise that a blessing of an eternal home in Heaven awaits those who obey! We cannot even begin to understand the beauty that’s waiting for us there!!
We read in John 14: 2-3 KJV , “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Our blessings overflow! It is my prayer that we never forget to thank God for all of our blessings and that we thank him each and every day for all He’s done and continues to do in our lives! Let’s always try to be the Christian examples we need to be and tell others about how He has blessed us and remind them to see His love all around us! Share with others who wonder about the hope that is within you and be ready to give an answer to those who ask!
I Peter 3: 15 “…be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”
May we forever be aware and thankful, as we Count our blessings naming them one by one!
Kitty Hackney @ http://ahappyheart3.blogspot.com/