count your blessings one by one

Accept with gratitude everything that God allows into your life,
whether it's from a friend or an enemy.
It is to remind you of your need of humbling.
He that humbles himself shall be exalted.
Humble yourself...only you can humble yourself.
God cannot humble you; nobody can humble you.
And then God'll give you more grace; He'll exalt you in due time.

"Learn of Me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart,
and you'll find rest for your soul."
Learn meekness from the Lord, and find rest for your soul.

Every good thing comes by the grace of God.
This realization will help you to be grateful people.
God's looking for such people so He can bless for it pleases Him.
Ingratitude comes from selfishness, and we see selfishness
in Christians who look unhappy.

Because they're forgetful people who could not count their blessings,
like what the Isrealites did in the wilderness.
They forget very fast and take many things for granted,
even the grace and mercy of God.
Like the Isrealites, they keep asking for onions and garlics.
Salvation is not enough; they want luxury, wishing to be back in Egypt.

They begin to develop an attitude of complaining,
thereby opening the door for the devil to enter to cause harm.
(Fear opens the door and to wrong thinking.)
Wrong thinking makes you take stupid, destructive actions that can destroy.

All started from an attitude of ungratefulness.
Be always grateful for the simple things in life, even your breath,
so that God can bless you even more.
The secret to blessing and favour of God is gratefulness.
Therefore be grateful and thankful for every single thing, day by day.

an attitude of thanksgiving

"Do not worry or be anxious, but in every circumstance, in everything....
give thanks to God in your prayers to Him." (Philppians 4:6)

The solution to worry is not prayer but thanksgiving.
When we come to God in prayer because of a need or worry,
God wants us to be thankful and grateful for what He has already done for us.
If your heart is right and thankful, it pleases God to give you even more.

God does not want an act of prayer or an act of thanksgiving.
God wants an attitude of thanksgiving in our hearts,
even before we pray or say anything.
God sees the heart.

Most people stress on the asking...just keep asking until you get what you want.
But if God sees unthankfulness and an ungrateful heart,
your prayers are displeasing to Him.

If my daughter asks me for Apple doughnuts, and I know her heart is grateful,
is it easy for me to say no?
From the way she asks, you can tell whether she's grateful or not.
When you know her heart is right and grateful, you'll love to give her more
to see her happy.

When a son asks for bread, does the father gives a stone?
Or asks for a fish and the father gives a scorpion?
Whether I meet my daughter's request or not, it's for her good and her future.
Which is more important...her selfish request or her future?

A person with a thankful and a grateful heart is not a selfish person.
God treasures a thankful heart, 
an attitude of gratitude for the things already given.
It pleases God to give even more.

Gratitude

Gratitude makes us grateful even for the past, for the storms we went through,
and for the hard times we'll never forget.
We are where we are today by the grace and mercy of God.
Like Joseph, gratefulness brings peace for today and a vision for tomorrow.
Gratefulness turns anger into humility;
it turns dissatisfaction into satisfaction; it turns enough into more than enough.
Gratitude turns chaos into order, confusion into clarity.

It's common to see Christians doing the right things, reading the bibles, pray and give tithes,
and also give time and efforts to the cause of Christ,
but their lives of obedience often fail to acknowledge the fresh touches from God,
and to say a simple thank you for them.
It's easy to get lost in the discipline of obedience.
Human nature does not lend itself to gratitude.
It lends itself to complaining.

God desires a thankful people, and hates a murmuring, grumbling,
fault-finding, complaining people.
This was the attitude of Isreal during the 40 years in the wilderness.
God called it unbelief. (Fear of the future is also unbelief.)

God's covenant is that we believe and trust in Him;
then He'll keep His covenant promises to us...to protect, to provide,
and to work things out for good to those who love Him.
Only through belief and trust can there be joy and peace.
Our ways, our intelligence, our plans, our visions and our efforts alone
cannot bring this joy and peace.

When the Israelites were delivered from the Egyptian army,
they celebrated and praised the Lord.
But soon out in the desert, with hard walking in the sun,
and thirsty without water to drink, they began to murmur....

"Because they were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt saying...
"Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve
the Egytians than we should die in the wilderness." Exodus 14:11

"Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!
For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
Exudus 16:3

They were thinking of the onions and garlics and meat in Egypt;
they wished they were back in Egypt.
There's a purpose God brought them out into the wilderness....to test them.

"God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years,
that He might humble you, testing you,
to know what was in your heart,
whether you would keep His commandments or not." (Deuteronomy 8:2)

We all face hard times in our lives, one time or another.
Often we're not aware we are ungrateful people,
and we like to justify ourselves.
And through events in our lives, or through other people, we face afflictions and persecutions.
It's difficult to see blessings in afflictions, because it's painful.
But nothing happens by chance.
It's put there for us to test us,
and to bless us by making us stronger spiritually.
Unless you're blessed spiritually, you cannot be blessed in the physical.

But you ask...how can blessings be painful?
Because we suffer hurts and much pain, and also loss of peace and happiness.
Blessing does come with pain...like it did to Joseph, through slavery and prison.
God knew what He was bringing Joseph through,
and God also knows what He's doing when He allows you to go through hard times.
Afflictions are working out God's purpose in our lives.
Afflictions will expose our self-will and pride in us, our attitude of ungratefulness.
God, in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, allows things to come into our lives,
because God wants to know what's in our hearts,
and God is working things out for our destiny.

Are you the grateful kind of a person?
The people who see you everyday....friends, family and co-workers...
would they say you're a grateful or a grumpy kind of a person?
They've watched your face as the boss handed you yet another unexpected project to do.
They've heard your reaction to the waiter, when your order is long waitng.

A grumpy attitude can evolve quickly and quietly into a sour character.
You unknowingly become one of those people, no one wants to be around,
because you're always in protest.
Never happy with the way things are, you keep complaining
about the way things could be or should be.

If this sounds like your life, it's time to let them go.
But how? This is how.
"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth."
Because the meek has power,
power to exercise self-control, not complaining in less favourable cirmcumstanses,
power to overlook insults or provocation,
power to bless those who curse you,
power to wait patiently and thankfully accept everything that happened
as a part of God's infinite plan and purpose.

Meekness is the foudation for an attitude of thankfulness.
Obedience is not all that God wants from you. It's not enough.
If God wants obedience , He could create a race of robots.
But God wants you to choose, to pause in your obedience to Him,
and to run back to Him with an open expression of heartfelt appreciation and thankfulness
for all that He has done in your life.


God's seeking a heart that's grateful, an attitude of gratitude.
"In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God."

the sacrifice of God

What causes sin? Self-exaltation & pride.
This was the sin of the angels who fell. Pride and self-seeking changed them from
bright & beautiful angels into dark, ugly & rotten-smelling demons,
whose destinies are in the dark, smelly, cold, desolate place called hell.

Man's life since Adam's fall, is made of self-love, self-will & self-pleasing.
Self is the idol he serves...the cause of all sin & misery found in this world.

"But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself." (Hebrews 9:26)

So "through the eternal Spirit, (Jesus) offered Himself without spot to God,
to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." (Hebrews 9:14)

Your sin, my sin, the sins of all who have ever lived, and yet to live,
came on Jesus through the eternal Spirit.

"By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." (Hebrews 10:14)
...that completely perfect all who put their faith in the sacrifice.

But our appropriation of it, our sanctification is a progressive one,
receiving more and more of God,
and further and further away from sin and the world.

Jesus came to be our Saviour by delivering us from self,
so that we live no longer to ourselves.
Jesus humbled Himself, took the form of a servant and even to death on a cross.

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)

"Come unto Me. Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls."

In order to find rest, what is the main thing to have?
Meekness... a willingness to learn, and to be meek.
This is the way to be blessed.

Jesus subjected Himself to the will of God, and sacrificed Himself for the glory of God.
Because He humbled Himself even unto death, God highly exalted Him

We too must come to the place where the Lamb is.
The Lamb will lead us to the living water;
He'll perfect the salvation begun in us.
We'll share in the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Your fellowship with the Lamb is fellowship in His sacrifice,
in His meekness, in His power and in His victory.
The denial of self,
and fellowship with the death of the Lamb
is our hope into eternal life and salvation.

"The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom
and strength and honour and glory and blessing."

"You're worthy to take the scroll and to open its seal, because you were slain,
and with Your blood you purchased men for God." (Revelation 5:9)