Count Your Blessings
“And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:20 (NLT)
You get home, you flick the switch to turn the light on, the house is already warm because the timer switched the heating on before you got home. You pour clean, fresh water into the kettle, you cook your dinner from food in your kitchen cupboard and you sleep in a warm and comfortable bed before facing another day. This is so utterly mundane that it’s hardly worthy of comment, don’t you think?
I don’t know about you, gentle reader, but I’ve never known anything else. The above is just part of normal life; I don’t even think about it and I imagine that you don’t either. A few years ago, we went on holiday to Egypt to see the pyramids and all the other touristy stuff (we saw so much that we had to pause at the tomb of the unknown tourist!), but what I really remember from that trip was seeing the grinding poverty that most people lived in. I saw it with my own eyes and it brought home to me just what a privileged life I have led since birth. Was it through an accident of birth or by God’s design that I was born into a middle class family in Britain whist others were born into poverty in the 3rd world? As it says in Psalm 139:6, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!”
The majority of my fellow human beings can only dream about what I take completely for granted. That makes me both angry and upset. Jesus said in Matthew 26:11 “You will always have the poor among you…” Even here in Britain, still one of the richest countries in the world, we have people who sleep rough on pavements and in undergrowth because they have nowhere else to go.
A very familiar song by Johnson Oatman, Jr. goes,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
So, next time you flick that switch, turn that tap and snuggle under a warm and comfy duvet – all these utterly mundane things – remember those for whom all this is but a dream.
Prayer
Father, help us to remember always, and be grateful for, all the many privileges that we have and to remember those who don’t. In Jesus’ name we ask.
Amen
Study by Chris Burmajster
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About the Author:
Chris Burmajster attends the Reading Congregation of the Worldwide Church of God UK.
Local Congregation:
Worldwide Church of God Reading
Prospect School,
6th Form Common Room
Honey End Lane
READING
RG30 4EL
Meeting Time:
Saturday 11am
Local Congregational Contact:
John Stettaford
Phone: 01923-241426
Email: pastor@wcg-reading.org.uk