Blessings list

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 has done. 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 has done. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Johnson Oatman, Jr., pub.1897

Regularly I find myself complaining about one thing or the other and typically I sort of feel entitled to my own grumblings.  This time around this question popped in my head, “what are you thankful for?”

Looking at the to-do list, plans, wishes and dreams, it is hard for the things I have already achieved or done to shine through and be the centre of my day.Recently, I am beginning to recognise the value in taking inventory of all the goodness of the Lord (as if I can count them all). When you start to note down the blessings that you can remember, it gives you an appreciation of how far the Lord has brought you. By listing the goodness of the Lord we begin to see a pattern of His hand over our lives. Our perspective of our life that gave us an entitlement to complain shifts, as we begin to see the different ways God has come through for us.

O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name! O my soul, bless God, don’t forget a single blessing!
Psalm 103:2 (MSG)

As humans we tend to have spiritual amnesia and we forget the daily blessings of God in our lives. Our natural instinct is to see gloom, disappointments and all the let-downs; but God wants us to live in constant remembrance of His goodness in time past so we can trust Him with our future. I remember there was a season in our life when Eben was recording all the prophetic messages and promises we were receiving as a family. In that moment it did not really make sense to spend time and write these revelation messages down, but in retrospect, we can see how we have lived and depended on these same prophetic messages over the course of our lives.

What a glorious God! He gives us salvation over and over, then daily he carries our burdens!
Psalm 68:19 (TPT)

What we sometime fail to remember is that, we have a Father who is constantly saving us and sorting us out, even when we don’t deserve it. So we can show our gratitude by reflecting on His goodness and offering Him thanksgiving for all He does for us. Even if we cannot see a way out if our current situation, we can rest in the fact that He has helped us before and He will do it again. Life is a cycle and all our situations are being recycled to reappear in different forms. So no matter what you may be seeing now, you have experienced something similar in your past. By remembering how God took you through THEN, you will be able to deal with how He will take you through your NOW!

I encourage you to start drafting your Blessings List. This is the list you can always refer to when the road ahead turns dark and you cannot seem to find any form of light around you. The Blessings List will shine a light on your darkened road. When you reminisce about your life and see how God has been faithful in diverse ways to you, the next time you meet your mountain you can refer to your Blessings List and reflect on how God took you through a similar situation. We are bound to have a bad or awkward day, but that bad or awkward day will not have us because we will have our Blessings List to remind us of the good and amazing days God has given us previously.

God told the Israelite to leave markers on their way so they could tell their future generations about the goodness of God.

4 Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; 5 and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”
Joshua 4:4-7 (NKJV)

If we all had a record of the Blessings of God over our life, that will be an assurance of the faithfulness of God to our children and their children. We need to ask ourselves what stories we are passing down to our children. Are we being mindful about highlighting the goodness and deliverance of God or are we unconsciously projecting the negative stuff that has taken place in our lives? I am not implying that we should hide the bad things that has happen to us from our children, but instead we should magnify how God took us through those bad seasons.

We’ve heard true stories from our fathers about our rich heritage. We will continue to tell our children and not hide from the rising generation the great marvels of our God— his miracles and power that have brought us all this far.
Psalm 78:4 (TPT)

What messages and testimonies have we received from our parents and our elders that has helped shaped the course of our lives? Could we do the same for our children?

For every single day in every month I should have a reason to be thankful to God for.

And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (TPT)

The bible tells us to give thanks to God for all He has done because that is God’s perfect plan for us. I believe God want us to be people of gratitude because of the power that it entails. If I can remember to thank God in the face of difficulty, I gain access to a God who will do anything for His children. If we allow gratitude and thankfulness to override a bad day, we gain access to heaven’s resource because thanksgiving will release heaven’s resources. When our children show gratitude for the little blessings we shower on them, we are encouraged to bless them over and over again. Likewise, God expects us to remember His abundant blessings over our lives so that we do not allow a temporary bad situation to influence our life. Instead we will push our bad day away with a thankful heart that remembers the goodness of the Lord over our lives.

When the devil comes with his lies and deception about God’s promises concerning you, you can go back to your Blessings List and reflect on what God has said concerning you and also remember how far He has brought you and helped you before.

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Luke 22:19 (NIV)

Before Jesus died, He shared His last meal with His disciples and told them to do this in remembrance of Him. There is power in remembering and accessing the tangible recorded blessings of God over your life. This is comparable to tapping into an electrical power plant to gain access to the electrical power it supplies. The electric power was always there, but it only becomes available to you when you tap into it. That is exactly what the Blessings List represents. It is your reminder of the power of God over your life you may have even forgotten. There’s power that permeates from just the memory of God’s goodness over you. I believe by reflecting on it, we activate that power that worked behind those blessings in our past. It’s like we are saying to God, I know you did this in the past and I am believing you to do it again. Inadvertently you remind God of His faithfulness and depend on Him to see you through now.

Remembering how far the Lord has brought you will give you a revelation about what He is about to do next in your life.

May you be filled with the Fullness of God and the Power of His Love!