Count Your Blessings, Name Them One By One
All that I am, praise the Lord;
everything in me, praise his holy name.
My whole being, praise the Lord
and do not forget all his kindnesses.
(Psalm 103: 1,2)
I was on my way to attend the Sunday Service at Joanmount Methodist Church, Belfast in September 2020 after a long break of six months due to the COVID - 19 pandemic. I realised that the church had resumed services on Sundays with a limited crowd and was on my way to join the fellowship in worshipping the Lord. During my 10 minutes of relaxed walk to the church, I felt emotional reminding myself that after a world order-changing pandemic, I am still alive and walking to the house of God with all my strength.
Furthermore, my mind also slipped away from the track and calculated all the loss that I had come across due to my stay in the UK during this pandemic. I had joined Queen's University for my doctoral studies nearly a year ago (September 2019) and a few months after, a life full of challenges began. The confidence of reaching home within a day was no more. The financial stability within the country where I am living and the country that pays for my studies looked vague. There were struggles accompanied by the limitations of the new lifestyles and the fear of greeting a fellow human being. I remembered the number of loved ones whom I will not get to meet when I return home; not because of the pandemic but by normal means. The sadness caused by the helplessness in being with my family in these times of distress made me feel like I had lost some of the important moments of my life. Personally and socially, I felt pressured.
However, while I thought of all these struggles and was almost about to drown into the sadness of the conditions around all of us, a strengthening and uplifting thought dawned in my heart. "But, do you remember the thousands of ways in which God has blessed and safeguarded you?" That one question kept me moving. That little thought brought in millions of happiness and comfort when I remembered the extraordinary and supernatural ways in which God had blessed me. I counted God's blessings one by one and they surprised me of what the Lord has done! I walked to the church with thanksgiving in my heart and praised God for keeping me alive that morning.
Psalm 103 reminds us of the same. It reminds our whole being to praise the Lord and not to forget all His kindnesses. The Lord has forgiven all our sins, He healed our diseases, our life was saved from the grave by Him, and the Lord loads us with his love and mercy. Our Lord, our God satisfies us with good things and makes us young again like the eagle. The Lord does what is right and fair, and with all His mercies He is kind to us. He does not become angry quickly and has great love. He will not accuse us and will not be angry forever. He has not punished us according to our sins and has not repaid us for the evil we had done. "As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is his love for those who respect him. He has taken our sins away from us as far as the east is from the west. The Lord has mercy on those who respect him, as a father has mercy on his children. He knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103: 11 - 14).
I pray that all of our hearts would be so faithful to the Lord our God so that even in the midst of the worst situations we would not forget all His kindnesses. This remembrance will help us to trust Him more. May the blessings and providence of God our Father, the grace of Christ Jesus the Son and the presence of the Holy Spirit give us a heart of thanksgiving as we move forward in our walk of faith.
May God bless you.
Yours in Christ,
"Count Your Blessings" by Guy Penrod
