Counting My Blessings!

In just three days, Americans will celebrate another Thanksgiving Day.  Most of the people celebrating will be focused on the food they are consuming or the shopping they will be doing (now on Thanksgiving Day, not just the day after!).  Some will be focused on the blessings of family and holiday togetherness.  Fewer still (even few Christians) will actually take the time to focus on the blessing of having a relationship with the sovereign God of the universe.

I want to be one of the people in the last group.  I want to separate myself from the trappings and warm, fuzzy feeling of the holiday and really send my thanksgiving in the right direction for the right things.  Don’t get me wrong . . . it is a blessing to be part of a loving family and to have the privilege of enjoying good food together.  Not everyone has that on this day, and I don’t ever want to take those things for granted. 

But when I decide to count my blessings, I need to be able to see beyond the here and now and desire something more than earthly warm fuzzies.  As Christians, the blessings and benefits we seek should be different than those that other people want to achieve.  To be blessed by God means to have a distinctive spiritual joy and ultimate well-being that only comes from relationship with him.  It is the state of being spiritually prosperous, an inner condition that should affect our outward behavior and approach to life.  And while we tend to think of blessings as things that we get to enjoy right now, God’s blessings often involve future generations and also stretch into eternity.  God’s ability to bless us in an eternal way far exceeds our limited expectations for him to bless us in the here and now.

The Bible tells us that we all have the complete package of benefits connected with knowing God: we have been chosen, adopted, and forgiven, and have spiritual insight, spiritual gifts, the power to do God’s will, and a future hope.  “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)

Regardless of how many earthly blessings are present or lacking in my life, focusing my attention in the right direction should produce a grateful heart and a different perspective on how my life is truly blessed in all the ways that really matter.  This Thanksgiving, I want to focus on the blessings that are eternal and spend more time being thankful for those than the blessings that are temporary.  It’s not wrong to be thankful for earthly blessings, but will you choose to join me in counting all your blessings?  

Time to Dig In!

I just finished spending a weekend leading worship at our church’s annual women’s retreat.  It was a great time of fellowship with my Christian sisters and focusing on God and his desire for relationship with me.  The theme was “Run After Righteousness”, and the speaker’s thoughts were based on Hebrews 12. 

A recurring thread in what the speaker had to say was the importance of spending as much time as possible in God’s Word, which is something that I have believed for a long time.  It reminded me that only God’s Word will stand forever (Isaiah 40:8).  I’ve read many outstanding books that have had a profound effect on my life.  But, the truth is this: everything written by man will lose its ability to influence and will fade away; but God’s Word will never grow old or become useless.  It is applicable to every generation because it is God’s complete written revelation of truth – eternal and unchanging.

The importance of this comes to light when we try to “run after righteousness” – to persevere in our walk of faith and complete the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1).  God’s Word is entirely authoritative for our life of faith.  It is our standard for testing everything else, our safeguard against false teaching, and our source of guidance.  The Bible penetrates a person’s innermost being, revealing who we are and what we are not, cutting through to the core of our moral and spiritual life (Hebrews 4:12). 

I can read a book written by a human and then toss it aside if I want to.  But God’s Word is active in accomplishing God’s purposes and requires us to make decisions.  That’s why it is something that I should always make a priority in my life.  In Isaiah 55:10-11, God tells us that his words never return empty without achieving the purpose that he wants:

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish . . . so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Isn’t it encouraging to know that absolutely everything God ever says, from before time began and for all of eternity (and everything in between), has meaning, purpose, and success built into it?  Those are the types of words I can rest my very life on and trust to guide and sustain me.  Time to dig in!

Time Marches On

I’m having a hard time believing that November is already here!  October seemed to fly by at our house, and now a new month is starting.  Fall has always been my favorite time of year, but it’s going by too fast this year.  In no time, it will be Christmas and a new year! 

It’s hard for me to imagine time from God’s perspective, where “A day is like a thousand years . . . and a thousand years is like a day” (Psalm 90:4).  God does not view time as humans do, and he is completely unrestricted by time.  In fact, our entire lifetime is just a moment to him. 

Sometimes God’s perspective on time can be frustrating to us, like when we’re praying about something and it seems like we have to wait forever for his answer.  But I’m thankful that God can be trusted beyond what we can see at any given moment and that we can depend on him because he is eternal.  We constantly feel like time is getting away from us, but God resides outside of time and can be trusted to act when he is ready and do what needs to be done – which might not necessarily be what we would like him to do. 

Since our hearts were created for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11), maybe we should try to remind our bodies and minds that we’re not supposed to be completely satisfied with life here on earth because we were created for something different.  This world is not my home!  So, no matter how fast time seems to be whizzing by, I can focus on eternal things and stop trying to fit God into my time constraints.  I can start applying God-principles to my life here on earth instead of trying to apply human principles to God. 

Today I can relate to what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:18: “. . . the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”  October and November will soon be gone, but eternity will last forever.  God is much more interested in growing my character and preparing me for eternity than in making sure I get the most (from a human perspective) out of my time here on earth. 

There’s always enough time in each day and each season to focus on God and spend time preparing for eternity.  Just saying . . .