Count your blessings

In 1897, Johnson Oatman Jr. published his song entitled “Count your blessings”. The first verse of that song begins:

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

The challenge of Oatman’s song is the challenge of the Word of God. The song was based on the admonishment of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

 It is good to pause and recount all of the good things that God has done for us. This is a common practice of many, especially this time of year. But notice that Paul does not challenge us to give thanks for the good things or blessings, but rather in “all circumstances.” This is the great difficulty, to sincerely and genuinely thank God in adversity and hardship.

I recently viewed an interview with Christian author, Randy Alcorn, who early in his ministry career was subjected to a lawsuit because he chose to protest at an abortion clinic. As a result of the lawsuit the judge ordered that twenty-five percent of Alcorn’s earnings above minimum wage would be funneled to Planned Parenthood, a pro-abortion organization. This judgment resulted in Alcorn and his family choosing to leave the pastorate and to donate one hundred percent of all the income from his many books to charity and to live simply by earning minimum wage. Randy Alcorn went on to explain that in retrospect, all of the opportunities that have come his way, all of the good things that have happened in his life were a direct result of the bad things that God has allowed to happen in his life. This is the truth of Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

As we lay our lives over the teaching of Scripture, it challenges our perspectives on what is good and what is bad in our lives. Because, according to God it is all leading to the same place, the glory of the eternal purposes of God. And ultimately it is our perspective that guides our lives. Are we living our lives from the perspective of fear or faith? What we often view as adversity can cloud our perspective. But the challenges of the Word of God seek to correct our perspective.

Consider when in Luke 12:22 Jesus challenged his disciples “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life…” Think about how this challenge of Christ is so counter intuitive to our view of everything that we do and how we live our lives. We live in constant anxiety endeavoring to improve what we view as the negative aspects of our lives, when in fact we should, as Jesus counsels, “Instead, seek God’s kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” (Luke 12:31)

In this context Jesus says not to worry about food, clothing, because it is our heavenly Father who clothes flowers and feeds birds, creatures that do not bear His image. So how much more will Christ care for us who are made in His likeness and image. The issue with Jesus in Luke 12 is not our stuff but rather our God. When we treat our stuff in a way in which we should seek God, the stuff leads to stress. The results our clear when we seek food for comfort it leads to obesity, when we seek clothing it leads to debt as we chase the ever changing trends. Rather we should seek the Holy Spirit as our comforter and seek to be clothed with garments of praise that glorify God.

Notice that the challenge Jesus gives is this; instead of looking at ourselves we should focus our attention on the kingdom of Christ and when we do we have the promise that God will add to out lives the things that we need. Jesus challenges us instead of being fearful in the face of adversity, but rather to be faithful. Faithfulness is the antidote for fear.

 May the words of the Old Testament patriarch Joseph in Genesis 50:20 be ours. After a lifetime of enduring betrayal, false accusation, and false imprisonment, Joseph said this, “ …You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” As Christians we have many blessings and many of those blessings are in disguise. So challenge your perspective and be thankful.