One of my favorite hymns is entitled “Count Your Blessings”.  It is good to count our blessings, to be thankful to God.  When you think of your blessings, what is high on your list? Is it health, family, possessions, freedoms, or the beautiful earth around us?  But do you count your spiritual blessings?  Eph 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”  I thought it would be good to list some of our spiritual blessings.  I would be interested to receive from you a description of any spiritual blessing that I have not listed.  Consider the following.  We have been redeemed and our sins forgiven (Eph 1:7).  We are justified by our faith and have peace with God (Rom 5:1).  We are credited righteousness based on our faith (Rom 4:23).  We are adopted as God’s children (Eph 1:5).  We are freely given his grace (Eph 1:6).  We are given the Holy Spirit to lead and comfort us (Eph 1:13; Acts 2:38; Rom 8:14; John 14:16,17).  We have Jesus and the Holy Spirit to intercede for us (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:26).  We have ministering angels to serve us (Heb 1:14).  We receive wisdom when we ask (James 1:5).  We will be resurrected after we die and the second death has no power over us (Rev 20:6).  We have an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance reserved in heaven for us (1 Pet 1:4).  We can store up treasures in heaven that cannot be destroyed or stolen (Matt 6:20).  We have the Bible to tell us about God and instruct us in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16).  We communicate with God in prayer and we know he hears us and answers our prayers (1 John 5:14,15).  We have a God and His Son Jesus who love us (1 John 4:16; Eph 3:18).  We have the Lord as our helper who will never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5,6).

Our physical blessings sometimes are taken from us.  For example, we may lose our health or a family member may be taken from us.  When these are taken from us, our joy in them is lost.  But nothing can take our spiritual blessings from us.  Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:39).  It is constant and sure.  For that reason, we can ALWAYS rejoice in the Lord for the spiritual blessings he gives us.  Phil 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say, rejoice!”  So let me encourage you to look beyond whatever trials you have in your life and look at the tremendous spiritual blessings you have and therefore rejoice in the Lord.