Day 25 - Issue 27
John 1:16 NLT
'From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.'
Living with a continuous sense of gratitude is the invitation God extends. My mind leans towards focusing upon those unhappy moments and issues of anxiety that seem to take up a disproportionate amount of my thought life. Travelling as I do into London to visit Premier, I observe commuters biting their lip, tapping their fingers, gazing into the middle distance, each one consumed with their own thoughts. From external observation, they appear troubled and weighed down with life.
Now, I am not critical, I’m sure I too can look wrapped up with my own small pool of problems...Just ten minutes of looking at the news headlines can do that. This also confronts me with my inability to live with gratitude as my problems, although real, are small in comparison to so many in our troubled world. Now I think “smile” before I leave my home. A smile communicates warmth and a sense of peace. Why? Well, science has established that smiling stimulates the brain’s reward mechanism better even than chocolate. Ultrasound technology even reveals babies are born smiling.
Maybe learning to smile as a spiritual discipline might alleviate our many worries. So now I smile not just as I step out the front door, but when presented with challenges and disappointments; perhaps not immediately, but once I move from reaction to reflection. This is indeed a grace gift for we are continuously invited by God to “fear not”.
Grace is the assurance that God is with us, but always on his terms. When momentarily disturbed, it’s time to cast all anxiety upon God (1 Peter 5:7), and then live well in the moment. This puts a smile on my face. Grace invites you and empowers you to live fearless and content in each and every moment of your day. Grace does not remove obstacles, it provides the resource to embrace and live with such obstacles.
QUESTION: When was the last time you counted your blessings? Why not do it now?
PRAYER: Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your constant, faithful, loving presence that unites me with the Father, and for helping me when I am weak.
