Blessings

A couple of years ago, I read Ann Voskamp's book 1000 Gifts.  If you have not read it, run to the nearest bookstore and buy it.  (For a little peek into what it's about check her site out here:  One Thousand Gifts ) I had picked up the book initially because I recognized the author's last name from when I had gone to high school, and had heard that this book was a life changer.  As I read through this book I was stunned to realize that the church the author was talking about in the pages of her book, was the church that I had attended as a teen!  The people that were mentioned in her book were people I had grown up with, including my piano teacher and my best friends parents!!!  After the first few chapters, I realized that this was indeed someone who was related to a guy I had gone to school with and the in-laws that she spoke about were in fact the same people that I had gone and had clubs at as a young child.  Talk about a small world.

As I read through the book I was challenged to take up an attitude of gratitude!  For me, it is way too easy to focus on the negative things in my life, and so I took up her challenge of starting my own 1000 gift list.  This is a list of things that I am thankful for.  It can be as simple as a beautiful sunny day (which when you think of that is actually awe inspiring!) or as complex as answered prayer and seeing God's hand working in your life.  I do have to admit as I look back on my journal of praise, I have not been very faithful.  Ann's challenge is to every day write down three things for which you are thankful.  There are times that I am diligent in my thankfulness journey, but as I look back, there are months where I haven't written anything.  And ironically, its the times when life "is good" that I haven't entered anything into my journal, and yet the times that are most difficult I have tried desperately to be thankful and enter those into the journal.  I found it a little curious that it was those "good times" that I had no entries.  But I also realized that so often it is in the good times that I become complacent.  I forget that I need God.  I go about my daily duties and forget to thank Him for the very things that He has blessed me with day after day.  

Years ago, a friend of mine had made this quote "Every time you breathe in, you suck in mercy."  Isn't that so true?  Every time we take a breath in, it's one more moment that God has given to us.  What am I doing with that moment?  Am I thankful for that moment that God has given to me?  Am I using it to draw others into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ?  Am I focusing that moment on myself, or directing it in praise to God?  When I actually stop to think about all that God has blessed me with, I am overwhelmed.  I can't help but praise God.  It's when I look inward to myself, and focus on me, that I forget the blessings.  I am focused on the negative.  Satan gets a hold of me and forces my thoughts into some of the deepest, darkest places.  

However, it is also true that when I enter those dark places, it is at those times that I try to force myself to focus on the blessings that God has given to me.  To forge ahead in my praise journal and remind myself of how blessed I am by all the things/people/situations God has granted to me.  I will admit. It is not always an easy abyss to come out of.  But I can say that as I try to focus on the blessings, I am able to remind myself of what God has brought me through.  And I can say that some of those dark days of depression have been some of my most meaningful days of focusing on God's blessings.

On the good days, I am too focused on everything else.  I forget the One who has made all those good things possible.  I forget the joys that He provides for me day to day.  I forget that the very fact that I am breathing, is a sign that I am still sucking in breaths of God's mercy!!!!

So today my question to you is this:  What are you thankful for today?  What blessings has God showered on you that maybe you haven't thanked Him for?  When we turn our minds to focus on God's blessings and all the amazing benefits He gives to us, it sends Satan packing.  And I like that image.  I like that image of kicking him to the curb so that I can walk up my driveway and praise God, thank God, worship God.

One of my all time favorite hymns is To God Be the Glory.  I can still hear my Dad and so many of the GBF congregation singing it out at the top of their lungs. What precious memories! (think I'll have to add that one to my joy journal!)

Be blessed my friends, and hopefully this little blog reminds you to focus on God's blessings and to give Him such praise today!

Enjoy these words!!!!

To God Be the Glory

1. To God be the glory, great things he hath done!  

So loved he the world that he gave us his Son, 

who yielded his life an atonement for sin, 

and opened the lifegate that all may go in.

Refrain:

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, 

let the earth hear his voice!  

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, 

let the people rejoice!

O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son, 

and give him the glory, great things he hath done!

2. O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, 

to every believer the promise of God; 

the vilest offender who truly believes, 

that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

(Refrain)

3. Great things he hath taught us, great things he hath done, 

and great our rejoicing thru Jesus the Son; 

but purer, and higher, and greater will be 

our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.