joyI have a confession to make. I spent years disliking a Christian song entitled “Count Your Blessings.” One verse goes like this:

 

 

 

 

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings; name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

   You might be wondering why I didn’t like the song. Actually, when I look at it logically now, I can’t find anything wrong with it. I guess I didn’t like the song because it seemed to offer an overly simple solution to what I thought were my very complex difficulties. In other words, feeling sorry for myself was easier than doing the work of remembering all the blessings I have been given.

Some of you may be thinking, “Counting your blessings is a good idea, but you don’t know how horrible my life has been. Things are so bad that I can’t even think of any blessings right now.” If that describes you (or someone you know), then the rest of this article is for you.

Before we can enjoy counting our blessings, there is at least one thing we must understand about ourselves. I also want to share a truth about God Himself that changed everything in my life, including how I felt about that song.

Buckle your seatbelt. Here is a truth about ourselves that we don’t want to believe. We actually don’t deserve that good life we think we’re entitled to. In fact, most of us haven’t thought realistically about what we really do deserve from Almighty God.We know that we aren’t perfect, but we think we’re good enough to enjoy what many other people around us are enjoying. God, on the other hand, doesn’t compare us with each other. God measures our goodness against His own perfect goodness.

That makes all of us look very bad indeed. This is what we are like compared to God. “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one…. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:10–12, 18). We may think that we are better than what God says, but we are so broken and twisted that we can’t even accurately evaluate our own condition because “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick…” (Jeremiah 17:9).

It is easier for us to count our blessings when we understand this truth about ourselves. It enables us to see that we already have far more than what we deserve.

Donald Grey Barnhouse (pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Center City from 1927 to 1960) lists some blessings we often ignore. He refers to them as “common grace,” which is the goodness that God gives freely to everybody, whether they are Christians or not.

You are not a believer in Christ and yet you are still out of hell. That is the grace of God. You are not in hell, but you are on earth in good health and prosperity. That is the common grace of God. The vast majority of those who read these words are living in comfortable homes or apartments. That is common grace. You are not fleeing as refugees along the highways of a country desolated by war. That is common grace. You come home from your job and your child runs to meet you in good health and spirits. That is common grace. You are able to put your hand in your pocket and give the child a quarter or a half dollar for an allowance. It is common grace that you have such abundance. You go into your house and sit down to a good meal. That is common grace. On the day that you read these words there are more than a billion and a half members of the human race who will go to sleep without enough to satisfy their hunger, the fact that you have enough is common grace. You do not deserve it. And if you think that you do deserve anything at all from God beyond the wrath which you have so richly earned, you merely show your ignorance of spiritual principles.

   Here is the truth about God that revolutionized my life. Instead of setting my heart on having more things, better relationships, or increased comfort, I have found something far more satisfying than any of those things. It is having a close, personal connection to the One who created me. Having a relationship with God Himself is a blessing that beats all other blessings. In fact, that relationship is what has opened my eyes to many of the other blessings that God has given me.

When people put their faith in Christ, they discover that “God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19). I have learned that my relationship with God is real, rewarding, and undeserved. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).

Even when life gets hard and disappointing, a follower of Jesus can: “Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually” (Psalm 105:3–4).

When I count my blessings now, the greatest blessing I find is the joy of knowing that Jesus paid my sin debt for me and has chosen to show His love and kindness to me. If you turn to Christ, you too can be glad. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:4–5).