I ran across this last night while going through some old bills, that were finally paid off and it reall gave me pause. . .hope it causes us all to think about the Greatness of our God and brings us to His throne with a greatfull hreartt!

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep.. . you are richer than 75% of this world

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet or spare change in a dish somewhere . .you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy

If you woke up this morning with more health than sickness. . .you are more blessed than the 2 million who will not survive this week.

If you have never been imprsioned, felt the agony of torture the pangs of starvation and the danger of battle for your faith. . .you're ahead of over 500 million.

If your parents are both alive and still married. . .you are very rare even in these United States

If you hold your head up with a smile on your face and are truly thankful. . .you're blessed beacuse many can, but most do not.

If you can read this post, you are blessed doubly, in that someone was thinking of you and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessing, give honor to the King and feel free to pass this along to everyone or anyone else to remind folks how blessed we really are.

God bless you all! David ~(inotof)

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David

Amen!

It is understandings like these that have me shaking my head in amazement whenever I hear most people around me complaining about how bad their life is for this or that...

For 99% of Americans, there are many many blessings to be counted and things could be so much more worse than they currently have it.

God has blessed my wife and I many times over... and every time He does, I wonder why He would choose to bless ME. I dont please Him like I know I should, I'm not perfect, and I sin. Yet... He bestows many many blessings on me.

Fatherhood teaches us much about God. My boys (all 4 of 'em) are wonderful kids, and well behaved. [b]BUT[/b] at times they try my patience, sin, frustrate me, etc etc... but I never cease to meet their needs and even give good gifts... just because I love them.

God is this way.

Krispy

amen Krispy! (i'm not quite as experincned, i have only 1 lil girl [Israel]but i feel ya!

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David

Blessed = happy, [m]enviably fortunate, and [n]spiritually prosperous--possessing the [o]happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions

Though countless be the times I fail Him, He is still in my heart, witnessing that I am His, I am loved, I am indeed blessed. I'm blessed by His mercy, I don't get what I deserve. I'm blessed by His unmerited favor, I get what I don't deserve. Alleluia.
I have a wife and 8 children, 7 grandchildren. I have always been in reasonably good health. I've never been seriously injured. Oh how I long to be so faithful to God as He has surely been to me.
My greatest blessing was back in the late 60's. I was at a retreat for the religious men of my denomination. I didn't want to be there. I in fact told God so, and that if He did not reveal Himself to me in a personal way, I was not going to darken the door of a church again. On the Saturday night of that retreat, God showed up in me. I had no protestant or pentecostal knowlege whatsoever. God just flooded my soul. Everything that was rotten was washed away. I was floating in my spirit. I was weeping. I ran outside into the dark nite and stood in the parking lot. There were about a zillion stars out and for some strange reason, they all seemed to be glorifying God. I was so in love with God, I was beside myself.
I wish that I could tell you that it's been happy ever after. But it simply has not. It's been a long and narrow way. Most of it God carried me through, because He chose too. He is still carrying me most of the way. I know in my heart, that He will complete what He started. Thanks be to God. Blessed? Oh yes, yes, yes. For I have eternal life. Glory to God now and forever more.

Reading this Thread has helped me understand Blessing.

inotof said


"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep.. . you are richer than 75% of this world

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet or spare change in a dish somewhere . .you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy

If you woke up this morning with more health than sickness. . .you are more blessed than the 2 million who will not survive this week.

If you have never been imprsioned, felt the agony of torture the pangs of starvation and the danger of battle for your faith. . .you're ahead of over 500 million.

If your parents are both alive and still married. . .you are very rare even in these United States

If you hold your head up with a smile on your face and are truly thankful. . .you're blessed beacuse many can, but most do not.

If you can read this post, you are blessed doubly, in that someone was thinking of you and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessing, give honor to the King and feel free to pass this along to everyone or anyone else to remind folks how blessed we really are.

Amen Bro Amen

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Michael

Perhaps one of the greatest blessings is the gift of being able to change ones mind and secondly to give up.

To give up on our self life.
To re-examine our [u]own[/u] hearts.
To realize that our own opinions are just that, opinions, and they are not always right.
And we are not bound to them by anything other than a stubborn unwillingness to yield...

To the Lord.
To His thought.
To let go.

To think
To ponder
To let others speak into our lives
To listen
But more so to [i]hear[/i]

To expose what's 'back of it'

Back of our words.
Back of our expressions.
Back of our motives.

And then to lay it all down.
And let it die.
All of it.

And let the Lord dictate.
What is true.
What is necessary.
What His will is.

A blessing, if we would just let it penetrate us;

Isa 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isa 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isa 6:4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isa 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 6:6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Isa 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isa 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Psa 94:8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
Psa 94:9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
Psa 94:10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
Psa 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
Psa 94:12 [b]Blessed is[/b] the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;
Psa 94:13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

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Mike Balog