You Are Blessed

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. ~ John 1:16 (NLT)

In case you hadn’t noticed it, we live in a society that thrives on the negative. Just a look at the evening news, websites, blogs, vlogs, microblogs, and a million different avenues of communication, and the vast majority of the news that is shared has a negative connotation. The pundits blame each other for political messes. One country is spewing hatred toward another. One group of people are calling another group haters because they don’t believe the same that they do. We have “fake news,” sort of “fake news,” and “made up fake news.” In short, our world is saturated with negativity. And it is having an impact on all of us.

I have lead many small groups through an exercise that proves this point. You can try it if you like. Take five minutes and write down all of the things you don’t like about yourself. After that, take 10 minutes and write down all of the thing you like about yourself. Having witnessed this survey many times, the majority of those who do the exercise will have a longer list of things they don’t like than they do. This is in spite of the fact that the person doing the inventory had half the amount of time to write down the negative as they did the positive. Our culture, our world has wired us to see the negative first and the blessings last. No wonder many Christians have a hard time expressing joy!

This is also the world that Jesus was born into. Even 2,000 years ago, negativity ruled the culture. The Romans oppressed the Jews, calling them inferior. The Sanhedrin (the rulers of Israel) told people how sinful they were on a regular basis. Taxes were extreme, economic hardship was the rules of the land, and the death penalty was used on a regular basis just to help prove how powerless people actually were. Negativity was everywhere.

Yet, the most positive being in the universe came down into this mire, not to shame, guilt, or cast blame, but to bless us. As our verse today states, “From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”

This season of life, truly count your blessings. Give thanks for family, friends, a home, food, clothing, etc. Seize this opportunity. But, let that thankfulness, that focus on the blessings, carry forward into every day thereafter. Literally count your blessings.