It’s the season of giving thanks; The time of year we reflect on all the good things in our lives. Families all over the country sit around the Thanksgiving table and share what they’re thankful for. But not everyone has a table to join. Not everyone has a loving family. Not everyone has experienced a wonderful year.
When It’s Hard to Count Blessings
When life is challenging or you are alone, gratitude can be hard to muster. It’s hard to count blessings when you’ve lost your job or can’t pay the mortgage. Or how about when someone you love is facing a cancer diagnosis or their marriage is falling apart? It’s difficult to stir up feelings of thankfulness when a natural disaster has left your home in shambles or you’ve recently lost a loved one.
No doubt, there are seasons of life where counting our blessings seems impossible. But even in challenging circumstances, we can be thankful if we keep our focus on the blessings we possess as children of God.
For example, have you ever considered that it’s God who wakes you up every morning to a new day? He sustains our life. And that life, in itself, is a blessing (Colossians 1:17). How about the sunshine and rain that fall on the earth, ensuring the cycle of the natural world continues on? The breathtaking beauty of nature is a blessing. It’s God who surprises us with new relationships, new babies, new friends, new experiences. All of which are blessings from above (James 1:17).
Counting our Spiritual Blessings
For believers in Christ Jesus, there are many unique and powerful blessings we sometimes take for granted. Paul tells us we have “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). What does that mean? It means we are chosen, adopted, forgiven, and redeemed. You see, when we come to faith in Christ we are immediately sealed by the Holy Spirit. Our heavenly inheritance is secure. Heartache, calamity, personal failure, even our own sin, cannot break the seal. What a blessing it is that my salvation is not dependent on me.
In fact, when believers go through difficult times, God is there in the turmoil. He has not left you. Your dire circumstances did not surprise God—and he has a purpose for it (Romans 8:28). God uses everything in our lives, good and bad, to make us more like him. What a blessing it is to know life’s calamities and struggles are not wasted.
The Greatest Blessing is Yet to Come
My prayer for you is that in this season of thanksgiving, you’ll join me in focusing on the blessings we have as children of God, even in the midst of hardship. Your inheritance is coming. Friend, you have a reward reserved in heaven for you. It is imperishable, incorruptible, and unfading (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Today, I’m thankful for the little things: a grandchild sitting on my lap as I read a story, a new species of bird arriving in my garden, a quiet, unhurried day to read and write, a grown child popping in for a visit. Nowadays, it’s the simple things I’m thankful for, how about you? I hope you can find pleasure and gratitude in the simple things as well. What are you thankful for today?
Simple things are often the greater things.