Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. Psalm 103:2-5
Let’s take some moment to count our blessings. I know life can get challenging sometimes and makes us forget the little things that make our lives so beautiful.
It’s easy to get caught up in the daily busy schedule and forget that we have so much to be grateful for. But here is the thing, when we take a moment to look around and appreciate God’s blessings in our lives, it can change our perspective.
He gave you strength when you didn’t think you could go on. He brought the right person when you thought you had always been lonely. He promoted you, gave you open doors and things fell into their right places.
Now you are further along than you ever imagined. It was not luck. It was not a coincidence. It was the hand of God at work in your life. You should have been stuck, broke, depressed, and lonely, but God made a way when you didn’t see a way.
You can say like me, “I didn’t get here by myself. It wasn’t just my hard work, my talent or studying hard. It was the favour of God. He made things happen that I could never make happen on my own”
When you are in a tough time, you don’t see a way out, instead of being discouraged, and negative just remember what the Lord has done and count your blessings; how He turned your health around, how He gave you that baby when you were told that you couldn’t have a child, how He brought you out of the challenges that you got yourself into. How He protected you, safe you from accident, promoted you, healed you, and restored you.
As a young boy growing up, I had a lot of miraculous interventions in my life. There is a particular one that is still fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday. I was playing with some friends when I ran across the road without looking. I still can’t tell how I found myself on the other side of the road without being knocked down by a car that was on a high speed. It’s one of the blessings that will always make my count!
I can confidently say that God preserved me so I can do His work. It’s something I can never be fully grateful to God about. It was one of my motivations in the university. As a law student with a busy schedule, I walked with God to expand the kingdom of God on campus and was a voice for Christ. I have never stopped doing that despite the challenges in different places and countries I have travelled to.
If you are going to overcome those obstacles, if you are going to reach your highest potential, you have to learn to just remember what the Lord has done and count your blessings. When you are constantly thinking about God’s goodness, how He has protected you, vindicated you, and promoted you, not only will faith rise in your heart but it’s that attitude of expectancy that allows God to do great things.
When you recognize what God has done, you don’t take for granted that all through your life it’s been His hand getting you to where you are. Then it’s easy to honour God, it’s easy to be grateful. It’s easy to serve, to give, to help others. You realize where you are in life is because of the mercies of God.
Keep it at the forefront of your mind. You are not just lucky, you don’t just keep beating the odds. It’s the mercies of God. The reason you are still here, the reason that truck couldn’t run over you, the reason those drugs couldn’t kill you, the reason the sickness couldn’t take you out is that God has a destiny for you to fulfil. He has an assignment for you to accomplish. His mercies are never going to give up on you.
His calling is irrevocable. He chose you before you could choose him. You might as well recognize you are a marked man, a marked woman. The Creator of the universe has His hand on your life. The sooner you surrender your will to Him, the better off you are going to be. You are not giving up anything. You are gaining purpose, destiny, a life that He has designed, a life more rewarding than you ever imagined.
IF IT HAD NOT BEEN GOD!
David said in Psalm 124:1-8 “If it had not been for the goodness of God, where would I been…”? He was saying in effect, “If God had not shown me some of these mercies, I wouldn’t have defeated Goliath. I wouldn’t have been able to outlast King Saul trying to kill me in the desert and in the palace. Or I wouldn’t have been restored after my mistake with Bathsheba without God’s mercy”.
Sometimes you need to just count your blessings and thank God that you are still here. Depression couldn’t finish you off. That divorce, the legal problem, the bankruptcy couldn’t finish you off. The person talking about you, the haters, the critics, the naysayers, they tried to push you down, make you look bad. They did their best but their best was not enough. You are still standing, you are still strong and you still got a smile on your face.
They couldn’t finish you off. You got knocked down but you got back up again. You had a setback, a breakup, but you are still in the race. You went through a loss but you didn’t get bitter, you kept moving forward. That setback could not finish you off.
What am I saying? God has the final say. People can’t finish you off. Disappointment, betrayal, rejection or sickness can’t finish you off either. When the enemy comes in, the scripture says like a flood the Spirit of God will lift up a standard against him (Isaiah 59:19). The forces that are for you are greater than the forces that are against you.
You may be in a challenging time. Don’t get discouraged. Just count your blessings and remember the Red Seas God has parted in your life. Remember how God delivered you from the Pharaoh, so to speak. How He snatched you out of that harmful situation. How He closed that door which would have been a big mistake and how He blessed you with that position.
In the scripture, Saul was one of the greatest enemies of the church. He was headed toward Damascus to persecute believers. He had permission from the courts to arrest any followers of Christ. He was on his mission and had papers in hand when suddenly a bright light shone down from heaven. Acts 9:1-7
It was so strong that it knocked him off his horse. He fell flat on his back and couldn’t see. The believers in Damascus had this powerful enemy coming toward them. He was going to cause them heartache and pain. It looked inevitable but in a split second, God stopped it.
David said, “Let all who are discouraged take heart”. He goes on to tell how to do it. The next verse says, “Come, let’s talk about God’s goodness. I prayed and the Lord answered my prayer”. He was saying, “When you are discouraged when you don’t see a way out. Come and let’s talk. Not about your problems, not about what didn’t work out. No, let’s talk about God’s greatness. Let’s talk about your answered prayers. Let’s count our blessings and name them one by one. Psalm 34:1-10
What you are saying in your tough times will make you or break you. If you go around saying, “I will never get out of this challenges. It’s just too big”. You will get stuck. But if you will turn it around and say, “God, I want to thank you for your greatness in my life. Thank you for giving me this job. Lord, thank you for freeing me from this addiction”.
When you are always talking about God’s goodness and learning how His blessing works, you won’t be down and discouraged. You will have a spring in your step, and a smile on your face. You will know, if God done it for you in the past; He will do it for you again now and in the future.
Stop Letting your circumstances, a medical report, or a financial situation, cause you to live worried, and stressed out. Look back over your life and count your blessings. Remember that time when God showed up and suddenly turned things around?
Every victory God has given you wasn’t just for that time, it was so you could go back and use that as fuel to build your faith. Don’t talk about your challenges, talk about the greatness of God. Count your blessings and name them one by one.
Remember, the enemy cannot finish you off; God has the final say. I believe and declare if you will just count your blessing and reverence God for all He has done for you, His goodness will manifest more in your life. You are going to rise higher, accomplish your dreams and reach the fullness of your destiny in Jesus’ name.
