I mentioned to many lately that I often experience a feeling of euphoria whenever I walk into Wal-Mart. No, it’s not because I’m merely visiting Wal-Mart that I’m thrilled beyond measure, but it’s the fact that I CAN walk into Wal-Mart that a joyous sensations erupts within my soul! Obviously, this doesn’t happen often, but as my years on this sod have increased, I’ve become acutely aware of the many blessings that God has given to me. One of those blessing includes the ability to walk into Wal-Mart with my own two feet under my own power and strength. What a blessing! Alongside this blessing, if you or I were to get a piece of paper out and list our blessings, we probably wouldn’t have enough paper in our house to actually make a list of all that God has done for us. When we “count our blessings,” it’s easy to see what God has done and it’s easy to be grateful to God in that moment. We all should be grateful and humbled by the fact that God has given undeserved sinners anything. Truly, He is gracious enough to make His sun rise on the evil and to send rain on “the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
However, what are we to do whenever we begin to lose those same blessings for which we’ve been thankful? We’ve put on our list that we’re grateful for our jobs, grateful for our family, thankful for financial provision, thankful for a few good friends, and we’re thankful for our health, among many other things. But do we maintain that same grateful attitude when we lose our job, our family members pass away, our financial provision has receded, our friends move away, and our health begins to deteriorate?
I think that one of the most challenging concepts in the world is encapsulated within the following phrase from a man named Job after he had lost nearly everything: “…the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21b). Job maintained an attitude of praise, and seemingly, gratefulness to God AFTER tremendous and devastating loss including his ten children and his material possessions! How can we bring ourselves to the place of keeping our gratefulness to God the same whether we are in abundance or in lack? How is it that we can bring ourselves to continue to be grateful to God whenever our material and physical blessings are subtracting instead of multiplying?
Based upon both Scripture, what would be a sturdier ground for gratefulness which is based upon that which cannot be subtracted, nor can be diminished in any way. What would this “sturdier ground” be? What cannot be taken away from us? What remains when we have lost everything? What are the grounds for gratefulness whenever we have lost that for which we we’ve been most grateful?
For Christians, who we are in Christ IS that sturdy ground upon which we can have an unshakable gratefulness. Jesus spoke of the basis of this sturdy ground when He told His disciples the following:
“28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29).
Our wealth can be snatched from us, our cherished relationships of every sort can be snatched from us, our health can be taken from us in a moment, and every material possession we have can vanish in a matter of minutes. What, then, remains for which we can be grateful? Jesus says that it’s who we are in Him that remains when everything else has vanished. We wonder why we are so discontented and why our emotions fluctuate so much. It seems to me that we are allowing our changing and fluctuating circumstances to control us more than the unchanging Word of God. We go about our days and we forget, as Christians, who we really are and to Whom we ultimately belong. We forget that we are pilgrims simply passing through this current land to get to a Better Land.
It’s is good and well to “count our blessings,” but we must be sure to count, as Christians, our greatest blessing, our eternal blessing that will never fade, namely, our unchangeable and unalterable relationship that God has provided for those of us that have accepted His Son as Savior. May we seek to root our lives firmly in Him, in His Word, and more in what He has said about us than the uncertain realities that exist within this world.
So, I will continue to be grateful to God for the ability to walk into Wal-Mart under my own strength, but I’ll also be sure, within my next breath, to thank Him for saving my soul and showing mercy to me when I didn’t deserve it and for giving me “…an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…” (1 Peter 1:4).