Counting Your Blessings

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Psalms 40:5

Many, O LORD my God, 
are the wonders you have done. 
The things you planned for us 
no one can recount to you; 
were I to speak and tell of them, 
they would be 
too many to declare.




Did you catch in todays verse where it says..."The things you planned for us no one can recount to you: were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare."  Have you stopped lately to count your blessings. All the undeserved things that happen each and every day in our lives. There are so many things that we take for granted. Yet God has lavished His love upon us in the beauty of the sunset or sunrise.  The wonders of creation. The smile of a friend, a kind word. There are thousands of little ordinary miracles that happen each day. Perhaps you can explain many of them away to natural causes and perhaps they are just little gifts of grace that touch our lives in a million little ways.

Proverbs 17:22  The Message "²² A cheerful disposition is good for your health;
   gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.

Amplified Bible 17:22²²A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.'

 Thankfulness is a powerful thing. There have been difficult seasons when I would make a point to wake up and think of things I was thankful for. Thankfulness sets your mind and heart on a different path than a complaining or grumbling heart. We need to stir up the gifts that God has put inside us. We need to stir up our thankfulness. Its easy to get weighed down in depression, discouragement to the point that we wear it around like a wet blanket. We stand there pitiful, wet and cold and wish someone would come join us in our pity party. I don't mean to make light of anyones troubles but often the biggest adjustment that needs made is to our attitude. 
Put on the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness.  Which reminds me of this song that I am too tired tonight to try and record. So here is a link to a nice version someone did on you tube. I like the flags at the end.


If you are getting this in your e-mail you will need to click the blue title to get back to the devotional site to view the video.

Some more verses to think about today. Note that "And be thankful." at the end of Colossians 3:15
Don't just let Christ rule your heart and live at peace. Those things are followed by a very strong "And be thankful" You can start with being thankful that the peace of Christ does rule in your heart.

Colossians 3:15 NIV 1984  "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

Philippians 2 reminds us  ¹⁴ Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

I like it in The Message starting with 13b Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
 ^14-16Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I'll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for nothing. 

I believe as we go through the ups and the downs of life that people around us are watching. If we can begin to cultivate a lifestyle of thankfulness, and joy not just in good times but in the hard times as well. Our lives become a testimony of the power of God at work in us.  I love the line in the verse above that says That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.  Our God is a gentleman and waits to be invited by us into the situations of our life.  God is doing the work in us, he wants to provide the energy and the will to do the things he desires for us.


What are some things that you are thankful for?

Is there anyone or anything that you have been taking for granted?

Why might it please God for us to come to him with a thankful heart?

Are there things that you are complaining about that you might want to look at from a different vantage point. Maybe ask God what He is using it to work in you?


Prayer:
Dear Lord,
You do so much for us every day. There are so many things that we have grown accustomed to that we over look them or take them for granted. Lord help us remember those things. Help us more and more find reasons to be thankful for all that you do. Even in the midst of the trials we are facing help us to see the fingerprints of your love and mercy. Help us to be doers of the word and not those who just let it go in one ear and out the other. Help us more and more put it into practice in our lives. Help us catch ourselves when we might begin to complain and turn it around and find a reason to thank you.

Blessing in Disguise

Blessings in Disguise
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Genesis 49:25-27 (NIV1984)
Because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, 
who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, 
blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb.
Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

Note: If you are getting this in your e-mail you will have to go to my Devotional site to see the video.

Today I am sharing a song that has touched my heart this past year. I know for the longest time, I thought of blessings as only the good things in life, my view was very shallow. It is a blessing to be given a gift, friends are a blessing, family is a blessing. Wisdom, peace, healing, and prosperity are all blessings. But what about suffering, pain and trials are they blessings? My dictionary gives bit of insight into the word blessing. It is the act or words of a person who blesses, a special favor, mercy, or benefit, a favor or gift bestowed by God.

I think sometimes blessing can come in odd packages. A friend who is difficult to deal with may be the blessing that helps work the character quality of patience into our life. Not getting what I want, when I want it may be the blessing that helps me to learn to trust God. In the bible you will find the story of Joseph. He is sold by his brothers into slavery and spends years and years in a life in circumstances that are not at all what he imagined. Those years of hardship as a slave and then a prisoner, molded and shaped him. Maybe it knocked off some of his prideful and arrogant rough edges in the process as well. In spite of his hardships, he continued to trust God and made the best of his situation.  Was that time of slavery and the years in prison blessing? Lets not answer that quite yet. 

Most of us know the end of the story. If not you can find Joseph’s story right around Genesis 37.
Keep in mind that Joseph had no gift of foresight to see how his life would turn out. He did, as a boy, have some wild dreams of his brothers and parents, bowing down to him. Sharing those dreams got him mostly trouble. I have found that when God gives me dreams or visions, they generally have a way of trying and testing my faith. There is always a span of time when nothing in my present circumstances indicates that I am anything but crazy to continue to believe what God has shown me.  I am sure it was the same for Joseph. Were those dreams a blessing during his years in prison. Did they give him a thread of hope to hang on to or did they cause him to question his sanity? There are so many questions in this story that challenge my understanding of what I call God’s blessing. Those years of hardship prepared Joseph to be the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.  People got saved from the famine because Joseph was in the wrong place at the right time.

How do we measure what is or is not a blessing in our life?  Might the difficulty you are facing be working in ways that you can’t even see? Could something like loneliness be a blessing if it draws you closer to God or causes you to begin to reach out to others. I like the lines at the end of the song Blessings by Laura Story.

“What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life,
Is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy?
What if trials of this life, the rain, the storms,
the hardest nights are your mercies in disguise?

I wonder, are the things you are facing making you more thirsty for God? I guess my challenge to you, is to look at the things you are going through from another angle. I would propose you look upon them with a thankful heart. With a heart that chooses to trust even when things don’t presently make sense. What if the hard things you are facing, are blessing in disguise?

So that...

A favorite place to write and pray

So that...
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Psalm 67:1-2
 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
   and make his face shine on us
2 so that your ways may be known on earth,
   your salvation among all nations.

I love the many blessing and apostolic prayers found in the pages of the bible. I like to use them when I pray for people or to end letters that I write. This one I like because, so often we want God to bless what we are doing when really He blesses us to further His kingdom purposes through our lives. He is gracious and blesses and His face shine upon us so that.... His ways are made known on the earth and his salvation reaches the nations. That puts a whole new perspective on the me me me attitude of many of us who what to be blessed by God. While we may enjoy the blessings that we receive we need to be asking how is God wanting to use this blessing to make his ways known on the earth? I don’t think we touch that very often. We want God to bless us to prove that He does indeed love us. If you keep the perspective that His purpose for blessing is so that His ways may be known,  one can start to look at how many of his blessings come in packages that we don’t even acknowledge. For example the peace that I have in a particular trial or season of hardship. Yes the peace directly blesses me but what is it also doing for those who are observing how I go through the difficulty of life as a believer.
His blessing us is not so we can one day say ta-daa I have it all - see now I am blessed. I have a house, a car, a job, a mate, two kids, a dog a cat and a gerbil. We may or may not get blessed with the American dream.  David as a shepherd was blessed by God with the trials of having to deal with lions and bears that came to steal his sheep. God allowed him to practice with lions and bears to prepare him to one day face the biggest badest giant in the land named Goliath. The lions and bears my not have seemed like blessings at the time but they were. God blessed him by preparing him with skills and faith that he would need in the future. God made his ways known through David on the earth when he said in 1 Samuel 17: 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”   Some of the things we are dealing with in our life can’t be reconciled in the light of our current circumstances. They can only be reconciled in the light of what is yet to be. Who are you or I to say what tools or blessings that God is presently using to prepare us for His future purpose.  
Things to Ponder:
Am I allowing my present circumstances to work Gods character into my life? ____________
Is my view of “Blessing” shallow allowing only for things that make me happy or feel good?
Is my view of Blessing - getting my own way rather than that God’s ways may be made known?
Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help me expand my understanding about the purpose your blessings in my life. Some of the things I am currently facing seem difficult and not very pleasant. Help me to allow them to produce the desired results for your present and future purposes in and through my life. Make your ways known in the earth through the abundance of ways that you choose to pour out your blessing through my life.