{"id":54142,"date":"2022-09-24T15:09:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T20:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=54142"},"modified":"2022-09-24T15:09:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T20:09:17","slug":"count-your-many-blessings-but-use-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/count-your-many-blessings-but-use-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Count Your Many Blessings — But Use Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Kent Heaton<\/p>\n

\"\"As a nation, we are blessed in measures far exceeding the majority of people in the world. The material wealth possessed by Americans may seem rather routine but in most countries owning a pair of shoes is like owning a rare jewel. Stores often are filled to the brim with an abundance of food while most people in the world struggle to find enough food to enjoy an adequate diet. Johnson Oatman wrote that great hymn, “Count Your Blessings” which renders the chorus as, “Count your blessings, name them one by one; count your blessings, see what God hath done.” People of God should recognize where all blessings flow and daily be thankful for the blessings bestowed by the Heavenly Father.<\/p>\n

The challenge of our blessings is those things we are so thankful for can become our curse. In Luke 12 the rich man had many things to be thankful for. Jesus spoke the parable when He said, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God<\/em>” (Luke 12:16-21).<\/p>\n

The rich man could sing about the joy of counting his blessings but the problem with the rich man was what he did with his blessings – nothing. His hardened heart for the needs of others closed his heart to the one who gave him his wealth. How often have we looked at our lives and remarked as this man, “I have many goods laid up for many years; enjoy life and live off the fruit of my blessings<\/em>” and never think of those in need?<\/p>\n

In the judgment scene of Matthew 25:31-46, the pronouncement of guilt or innocence was based solely upon the benevolent heart of the person. Those who were blessed were those who counted their blessings and used them to God’s glory (Matthew 25:34-40). To the ones who were condemned (and to their dismay – Matthew 25:41-45) the opportunities to use their blessings for God’s glory were lost in their selfish spirit like the rich man in Luke 12. They counted their many blessings and kept their many blessings to themselves.<\/p>\n

God also offers a reality check for all of our material blessings in the story of the rich man. When the rich man died, the Lord said to him, “whose will those things be which you have provided?<\/em>” Solomon understood this in Ecclesiastes 2:17-19. “Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

We should count our many blessings and name them one by one. When we finish with our inventory then we should use our blessings for the glory of God. “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:28). When we die we will leave all those blessings but let us leave our influence for good by our example.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kent Heaton As a nation, we are blessed in measures far exceeding the majority of people in the world. The material wealth possessed by Americans may seem rather routine but in most countries owning a pair of shoes is like owning a rare jewel. Stores often are filled to the brim with an abundance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1095,1470],"class_list":["post-54142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-blessings","tag-productive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56433,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/give-thanks\/","url_meta":{"origin":54142,"position":0},"title":"Give Thanks!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Daniel L. Holloway via\u00a0Guardian of Truth XXVIII: 3, p. 77, February 2, 1984 These days, we hear much about our country's economic woes. And we do not have to look far to find that society is beset with plenty of other problems. Of course, each individual has his own\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68949,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/count-your-blessings\/","url_meta":{"origin":54142,"position":1},"title":"Count Your Blessings","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Download Audio by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57199,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/on-the-other-side-of-the-fence\/","url_meta":{"origin":54142,"position":2},"title":"On the Other Side of the Fence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Philippians 4:4-9 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is so easy, so tempting to look at what someone else has accomplished and think \u201cThat could have been me.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When you are in school, have you ever caught yourself thinking, \u201cI can\u2019t wait until I have a job. None of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64245,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-unsure-about-a-line-in-the-hymn-count-your-many-blessings\/","url_meta":{"origin":54142,"position":3},"title":"I’m unsure about a line in the hymn “Count Your Many Blessings”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 23, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm unsure about the line: \"angels will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey's end\" in the song \"Count Your Many Blessings.\" Would it be unscriptural to sing that verse if we don't exactly know how angels are \"sent out to render service for the sake of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70566,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/expanding-our-horizons\/","url_meta":{"origin":54142,"position":4},"title":"Expanding Our Horizons","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Years ago, Reader's Digest published an article by a woman who told how she and her family decided one day to make a game of looking for Volkswagen Bugs as they traveled. It was amazing how many they saw--back when VW Bugs were much more common. Isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/horizon-300x225.avif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":91315,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-are-spiritual-blessings\/","url_meta":{"origin":54142,"position":5},"title":"What are spiritual blessings?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My daughter asked me a question that I couldn't answer as straightforwardly as I would like. Could you help me answer this question? What is a spiritual blessing? Ephesians 1:3 discusses this concept, but the explanation I found was too complex for me to understand fully. 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