The question, "What do I have to be thankful for?" is on one hand serious and on another absurd.
It is a question I like to ask myself every day. (Some days I forget, but I am trying to make it my practice.) I feel it is healthy and wise and honors our God who blesses us. Remembering to be grateful is important. So here I am at ten o:clock asking myself what do I have to be thankful for today? I could make a list, it would include:
* I am alive.
* I am mostly healthy.
* I have a home, car, clothes, and many nice possessions.
* I have a wonderful wife and family.
* I have a job- it is not great but many people don't.
* I have by faith trusted Jesus to be my savior and am assured of eternal life in his name.
* My family has food.
* I enjoy political freedoms of speech, commerce, worship, and many others in my country.
* The list could go on.
What do I have to be thankful for is absurd because as a human being I am so totally dependent on the mercy and grace of Almighty God that the answer is such a resounding "EVERYTHING" simply to ask the question is ignorant.
There are those who see all they have as the results of their own efforts. They ignore that God has allowed them to think clearly, breathy, move about, have freedom- in short to be alive. If we build a little empire in our corner it is built with the life we were given and sustained by God.
There are those who do not see the blessings they have been given. They say, "What do I have to be thankful for? After all, I have nothing." They do not see what they have, or value what they don't have better. They do not see that God has blessed them.
I was like that for a long time in my life I saw only what I didn't have or what I wanted. I didn't see how much God has blessed me every day. I didn't see the little blessings and unique blessings. I didn't see that each day in itself is a gift, and that as you opened that gift you found many more inside.
I am thankful.
Adron
