Gratitude

There is plenitude in God.  That great fact must never be lost or obscured.  We must not exchange this immense graciousness for a few scraps of human morality or a few shopworn proverbs.  God is a vast reservoir of blessing who supplies us abundantly.  Eugene H. Peterson

In the little brown Cokesbury hymnal, there is a song entitled Count Your Blessings.  We sang this hymn often on Sunday nights in my hometown church, and I always loved it!  The chorus goes like this: Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings see what God has done,  Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

Years ago in a small group meeting, someone suggested the idea of keeping a daily journal as part of your morning devotion time.  I took that suggestion and began to write in one every day in the form of a prayer.  After the perfunctory thank yous, calls for forgiveness, and prayers for family, friends, and those in need, I began to make personal requests for guidance, grace, church, and many other needs which would arise. As the journals were filled, the year was recorded on the front of each one, and put away.

Some time later as I happened upon the journals, I began to read over the prayers I had made during different years, now long forgotten.  It was amazing to me that each of the requests I had made had been answered in some way – some no, some yes, some not now.  I began to write “answered” by each one, and before I knew it, almost every request had “answered” written by it.  Looking back over all the “answered” marks,  made me realize just how blessed I am and how faithful God is through our lives.

A lot has happened to many of us during this past year; some exciting, some happy, much of it has been sad, even heartbreaking, but through it all, God’s gratitude to us has shown through.  Everything we have is a gift from God.  Our response to His gift should be our gratitude.

Count your blessings, and Happy Thanksgiving.