COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS (2)

“What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” – Psalm 116:12

To know how to THINK is to know how to Thank God and COUNT OUR BLESSINGS: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (Psa.116:12-13). The Psalmist expressed his love for the Lord because God hears and answers His children when we call to Him. In this song of praise, he recalled the many troubles and sorrows he had already encountered and how gracious and compassionate the Lord had been to him. The Lord heard his cry for help and rescued him from death and despair. And as the Psalmist remembered the merciful kindness and patient grace of the Lord towards him, he cried out: "How can I repay the LORD for all the good He has done for me? What can I give to the LORD for all He has done for me? What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me?" That’s the heart of one who knew how to count his blessings and give the Glory to God!

The Psalmist vowed to never call upon any other supposed deity. His allegiance, love, and prayer would always be to the One who inclined His ear to him: “Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live” (v.2). He was determined to trust God exclusively and worship Him explicitly. Preserved by God through troubles, he praised the gracious, righteous and merciful character of God. His, like ours, were the testimonies of the delivered and saved soul: “For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (vv.8-9). God alone knows the number of accidents, afflictions, calamities, and disasters our souls and feet gave been delivered from in just this outgoing year, not to refer to our entire lifespans! What shall we render?

There is nothing that we can do to repay the Lord for all His grace and love towards us. There is no payment or reward that we can offer to Him that could commensurately pay Him back for all the wonderful things He has done for us. There is nothing we can do, but to offer Him our sacrifice of praise: “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, ^[a]giving thanks to His name” (Heb.13:15). We can pour out our heart of gratitude to Him for our great salvation. We can tell others of the wonders of His grace and mercy, and we can seek to do His will with a willing and obedient heart that is overflowing with love for our gracious Saviour.

God is never influenced by man's foolish attempts to recompense Him for His eternal gifts of grace. There is nothing we can do to repay the Lord for all the goodness and loving-kindness He has shown towards us. However, we can live for His Praise. We can live a life that is pleasing to Him by trusting His Word and seeking in all that we say and do to walk in His Will and Way, to walk in spirit and truth, submitted to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and letting the love of Christ shine through us in thought and deed, to the Glory of the Father.

Counting our blessings by pulling our minds back to what God has done for us helps us to avoid falling into the trap of comparison depression. Wherever we are, we must learn to count our blessings. No matter where we are in life, when we count our blessings, our mind will come back into alignment with God’s Word. Joy will come flooding in! Even the darkest times are made lighter with a rehearsal of what God has already done. What He has done before, He will do again! Let’s think, thank, and count our blessings with grateful hearts, for God’s pleasure.