Good News | Rend Collective DevotionalSample

Counting Every Blessing

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Everyone else’s life looks amazing on Instagram doesn’t it? Based on my feed, I apparently exclusively know people who are always on vacation, crushing their career goals, with flawless complexions, angelic children and homes freshly remodeled by Chip and Joanna Gaines. Basically it should be called Insta-covet. 

I know that it’s all a big, fat lie - not least because even my own mildly boring life looks kind of awesome on social media - but it doesn’t stop the creeping feelings of insecurity and dissatisfaction. Roosevelt got it right when he said, “comparison is the thief of joy”, and we’ve never been more addicted to comparison as a society.

We went through a difficult season as a band in the last couple of years. We released a record that the critics thought was kind of “meh” (which is even worse, in a way, than them absolutely hating it because at least that would mean your art was provocative and interesting) and it sent us into a really unhealthy spiral - bitterly looking at the successes of others (often via Instagram) and becoming blind to the good things that were happening to us.

Fortunately we realised we were in bad shape as people spoke truth into our lives and we rediscovered the cure for joyless dissatisfaction: intentionally counting the blessings in our own lives.

Because no matter what the circumstances are in our lives, there is always something to be thankful for, and this is especially true for those of us who know Jesus. 

We were blind and now we see in colour, we were dead in our sin and now we’re alive in Him forever, because God is just THAT good to us.

The trouble is we have terrible memories when it comes to the blessings we’ve been given. The Psalms say “Praise the Lord, O my Soul, and forget not all his benefits”. 

When you’re first reading this it seems crazy to imagine that anyone would be capable of forgetting the amazing things God has done for us but think about it a little harder. Have you ever been lost in worship at church, full of awe and wonder, and then just a few minutes into the journey home been so frustrated by the traffic that all thoughts of the latest Hillsong anthem are like distant memories?

Most of us naturally fixate on the negatives more than we celebrate the positives. It’s like our default factory setting is ingratitude.

The only way to fight this is by being intentional and creating a habit of thanksgiving.  

One of the sunniest people I know is my friend Maegan who begins her day by listing in her notebook the things she is grateful for that day - maybe this could become your routine too.

We need to be thankful people - for the sake of our own joy and also for the sake of obedience to scripture - so we can’t just leave it up to our changing moods, our feelings and our shifting circumstances to dictate whether or not we will offer our gratitude to God. We have learned that celebration is an art form and joy a spiritual discipline. They’re things we need to practice and work at, not things that we’ll just suddenly become awesome at just because we’re Christians. 

We really have been blessed beyond all measure. Let’s make a commitment to be people who take stock of the wonderful gifts we’ve been given, who count our blessings and turn them into praise.