by Acts 12:12 “And when he had considered the thing…”
It was overcast with dark clouds in the distance as I awoke this morning. My body was achy all over just due to a chronic health issue. Stepping out of the bed was not easy. I slowly made the bed and got myself dressed and going for the day.
Throughout the whole time, I kept humming and singing the song, “Count your Blessings.” I made it a point to be thankful for the blessings God has bestowed upon me in my morning prayer time. (Sometimes, I go too quickly to requests in my prayers and forget about the blessings.) Still humming the wonderful hymn, I went downstairs, prepared my breakfast, sat down, and proceeded to read my morning devotional.
The devotional was for Peter’s miraculous escape from prison by “the angel of the Lord.” v.7 The devotional only called for reading verses 1-9, but I am so glad I decided to read the whole chapter. It was in v. 12 that I saw the wonderful phrase “when he had considered the thing.” Peter actually took time to realize what God had just done for him.
This got me thinking about how often I get too busy to be still and dwell on the blessings God has done in my life. I think in this verse God is showing us that we have to make a conscientious effort to – stop – and dwell on our blessings from God. Especially we women. We can get so busy with the house, with the children, work, church, and many other things, that we do not take time to just ponder the blessings of God.
Like Mary pondered the news of the baby she would deliver.
Luke 2:19 “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”
We women ponder things. We ponder lots of things. We ponder bills, health, cleaning, shopping, and all sorts of stuff. Our brains are normally in overdrive. We need to take time to ponder the blessings of God.
I watched a funny comedian a few years ago that compared men and women’s brains. Men have these little boxes and each box is for one topic. For example, they have one box for the house repairs, one box for the wife, one box for watching TV, one box for the children, and one box for each thing in life. Men are also blessed with the “nothing” box. The comedian went on to explain. “Wives, you know, those times when you go over to hubby and ask, ‘Whatchya doing?’ His reply, ‘Nothing’ while he aimlessly clicks through TV channels.” He is in his “nothing” box. “If you have been married for any length of time, wives you know, that you dare not interrupt him while he is in the ‘nothing’ box.”
The comedian went on to explain. “Women are different. Their brains are composed of all kinds of wires running all over the place. The wires overlap, cross in many places, and never end. Their thoughts zip here and zip there throughout these wires and they have the ability to think on many things at once. Women do not have a ‘nothing’ wire. They cannot stop thinking. They are always thinking.”
My point to this is – think on the blessings of God. Let’s not be too busy in our thoughts that we only see the negative. Since churches have not been able to meet regularly in many places, we do not realize how important it is to sing hymns and have them in our hearts to dwell on throughout the week. Our old hymns are so vital to lift our spirits each day. God used many great women and men to write our old hymns. Many of our hymn writers went thought great tragedies in their lives. So, pull out a hymn book and find a hymn or two to sing and ponder.
Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote:
- Count Your Blessings – I believe we all know this one. It so popular in our churches
- No, Not One! – maybe not as popular but the chorus is this “Jesus knows all about our struggles, He will guide till the day is done: There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus, No, not one! No, not one!”
- Higher Ground – I have sung this in many churches. The chorus is this “Lord, lift me up and let me stand, By faith, on heaven’s table-land, A higher plane than I have found; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
In summary, like Peter “considered the thing” that the Lord had done in helping him escape prison; let’s take time to “consider” the blessings God has bestowed on each of us in our lives.
At the beginning of my prayer list, (after asking God to forgive me and restore a right spirit in me), I have in capital letters, “THANKS” for item #2 so that I don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord for His blessings.
That is a wonderful thing to do. Good to remember to thank the Lord at all times. I was talking to the teen girls this week in Sunday School Class. I told them to imagine one thing. Imagine you are the Mom and your children always come and say things like “give me, I want, please do….” and your children never come to you and just give you a hug and say, “Thanks.”
We were talking about prayer and I think this helped them to get the idea a bit better about thanking the Lord for his blessings.