We Need to Count Our Blessings—R Fritz
We need to look at our life to see when God blessed us because we might have thought we were responsible for everything good in our lives and that would be a lie. We give ourselves too much credit for our lives and I am not discounting the stuff we have done but when we start to look at our life we see where a decision we made was responsible for the result that happened in different situations because God had his hand in our life. God wants to be part of our life, it was his love that he wanted to show so we would trust him. We need to be very thankful for God’s blessings and then show him how much we appreciate them. Psalm 103:2-6,8-10 says “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgetteth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgement for all that are oppressed. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide (strive): neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.” These are all God’s characteristics which show what he thinks about us. He never gives up on us and knows when we have succeeded as well as when we failed.
God hands out blessings, there is nothing that automatically gives us a blessing. God makes that decision how he sees fit. Numbers 6:24-27 says “The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.” What we might not understand is the Holy Spirit lives in us and knows every word or action we have made and the thoughts we have had. The Holy Spirit looks upon our words and actions looking at our heart and our feelings, our intent. God wants to bless us and finds ways to bless us physically, monetarily or spiritually. We must understand how much God loves us and refers to us as “the apple of his eye.” God will protect us, fight for us and is at our side waiting for us to call for help. We forget that the Holy Spirit needs us to ask for help where we can call out to be saved when we are battling. When we need help the blessing is we are given a helping hand, it might be from God or from somebody that God sends. We have probably never thought about that before.
Blessings are just that and are not taken away. Consequences for our actions are what people might think that God takes back what he gives us. Our actions do not cause God to take something back because he is omniscient (knows all). In other words, if he knows all, he knows what we are going to do before we do it. Our decisions sometimes are consequences that man has given us who God had no hand in. Isaiah 46:9-11 says “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man, that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it , I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” God declares the beginning to the end and when he has spoken it, it comes to pass. We need to believe what God has said and the things the Holy Spirit has spoken in our life, they will come to pass.
There is no such thing as chance as that is what man believes, everything happens for a reason. It happens because we have decided on good or bad, that decision is where God can take that bad thing or decision and make something good out of it. God’s ability to change our outcome is amazing. It happens because he loves us or because we are obedient, or it could be because we need something special at a time in our life when it looks like nothing is going well in our life. It might be a rainbow or something simple that makes us laugh. We are talking about God’s plan; we might think we have complete control over everything in our life and we do not know what God has planned for us unless we ask or let the Holy Spirit show us. We look at things differently than God. Matthew 19:26 says But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” We can only understand as a man when God gives us his understanding, we can see what we could not see spiritually.
We need to look hard sometimes but we will see the blessings that are given to us. It is God’s love for mankind and God’s wanting us to succeed with a plan only God can give us with us thinking we know what we need when we just need God. God Bless.
