https://odb.org/2025/11/26/count-your-blessings
Ezra 3:9–11 (NIV): 9 Joshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.
10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
When I was a little girl, I loved the old hymn “Count Your Blessings.” The song encourages those who are “tempest-tossed” and “thinking all is lost” to “count your blessings, name them one by one.” Years later when my husband, Alan, was discouraged, he would often ask me to sing that simple song to him. Then I would help him to enumerate his blessings. Doing so took Alan’s focus off his struggles and self-doubt and centered his thoughts on God and his reasons for thankfulness. (Alison Kieda, Our Daily Bread, 26th November 2025)
I feel we should all count our blessings every now and then, not just when facing difficult times, but on ordinary days as we go about our daily routines. We have a house to live in, a roof over our heads and food on the table. Or in the case of Malaysians, a short walk downstairs or outside or in more cases, a short drive away, there are abundance of cafes, hawker centres or restaurants offering delicious delicacies. Every time I watch a documentary on the homeless, most of who lived normal lives like us until some tragedy struck causing them to lose their jobs and can’t pay rent, I am thankful for the roof over my head.
Yes, there are tough times, we have health issues (sometimes self-induced) and some of us have to live within our meagre means. Yet we are not out wandering the streets searching for our next meal. If we are out of a job, we still have family support. If we are laid off because our employer is right-sizing, at least there is some compensation to tide us over. That is why many now advocate having a dual income stream in case we lose our main source of income. We count our blessings, especially when we are going through down times, knowing in our hearts that God will deliver and save us from our down times.
The worst thing we could do when faced with tough times is to wallow in self pity and spiral down into a web of self-fulfilling depression. Instead count our blessings and look to the Lord, the alpha and omega, the author and finisher of our faith. Do not allow the devil to deceive us to think we are failures. We may have had our failures but we are not a failure in the eyes of Christ. We are sons and daughters of the most High Almighty God, the creator of the universe and all things in it. Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Bible, is our God too! We can and shall overcome! Count our blessings and know that He is good, all the time! Amen
Ronnie's Thoughts 