I have been Blessed.

I was born in a time and place to parents who loved me deeply. I grew up in a world that offered me opportunities to travel, learn and have fun. I haven’t been disadvantaged by my gender, my race, and the education system I grew up in suited how I learned. I work in a job that I love, I eat 3 square meals a day (and usually a bit more), I have an incredible wife and a wonderful son. Beyond all that I know Jesus and He has changed my life for ever.

Why do I tell you this?

Mainly because I always want to cultivate a thankful heart for what I have received. My experience is not an experience that is shared by everyone but even being reminded of that truth it would be so easy for me to stop being thankful. It would be easy to move from a posture of gratitude and think that in some way I deserved to have these things in my life. I could easily move from being grateful that I have these blessings in this way and instead expect that it was my right to have these things.

The truth is even if I had never received any of these things I am blessed. I am blessed because God loves me, Jesus died for me and the Holy Spirit lives in me.

In the west we have to be careful to;

1. Not directly equate the the things in our life as a marker of the blessing on our lives
2. Not think that the things in our lives are a right that we have

When we feel it is our right we give God no glory or thanks for what we are living in. Therefore we can never be satisfied with what is around us, we will always push towards grabbing more and the whole time we will build a theology that God is hiding something from us. In truth, this line of thinking moves us into the role of provider and displaces the father – this has huge consequences.

Every time God is not central, our lives will go off centre.

This is why people who in a material and/ or emotional sense can have everything but feel like they have nothing and why people who in a material and/or emotional sense experience lack can feel utterly fulfilled. What is in our lives is not a marker of how blessed we are, who is over our life is where we find blessing.

If our lives are submitted to God we should be aware that we are living in an incredible blessing, an incredible privilege regardless of what ‘things’ are present or not present in our life. Let’s ensure that the position we have given the father in our life reflects the blessing that He has given us, not the blessing we feel we deserve.