“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Today I had the privilege of meeting an 86 year old man who has suffered from two strokes and a heart attack. As I took him back to the exam room, I noticed he had a cup in his hand. I asked if I could throw it away for him. When he replied, “Due to the two strokes they had to remove part of my esophagus, which has not allowed me to eat, swallow or drink for over 7 years now, this cup never leaves my hand.”
He is fed through a feeding tube. He is never hungry, never thirsty, and has no idea if he ever gets full. I wondered what that would be like to never be hungry, full, or thirsty. When he grabbed my attention back and said, “It has been a hard 7 years. 7 years of not swallowing, chewing food, or drinking, but I am so blessed. There is always someone who has it worse than I do. After my second stroke the Lord revealed something to me that changed my view of things.” “What is that?” I asked.
He said, “The Lord told me to count my blessings and not my burdens. When you begin to count your blessings you won’t have time to count or worry about your burdens because you will never get done counting your blessings. It was the one thing that brought me out of depression and made me smile again.” (And he has the cutest side smile I have ever seen, maybe that is why, because he counts his blessings.)
At this point I am crying and nodding my head because the lump in my throat was so big it blocked any words from coming forth.
Count your blessings over your burdens! What a powerful statement. Jesus knew I needed to hear that. Actually I think He wants us all to hear that.
We are blessed, and there is no doubt our blessings outweigh our burdens.
So maybe when you take your 30 minutes to pray today you could praise God for every blessing by naming them one by one. I bet it just so happens your time will go so quickly, you will stay at His feet a little while longer.
Try it and see what happens.
Jesus I have no doubts that so many of our lives will be transformed when we begin counting our blessings and not our burdens. I know that our hearts will begin to overflow with a new type of joy that can’t be explained, yet will be seen for miles away. I am excited and I am so thankful for this precious man. Thank You for using him to minister to my heart today. Thank You that I was listening and looking for You. I found You and heard You and I am blessed and better because of that conversation. Thank You. Amen
