You’ve been told to count your blessings. It’s good advice, mostly on a good day.
But what happens when you sit down to count, and the page stays empty? When the diagnosis is bad, the marriage is fracturing, the prayers feel like they’re hitting the ceiling? The gratitude journal advice that worked last spring suddenly feels hollow, maybe a little cruel.
I know that feeling. In late 1991, I knelt on the floor of my home office three months behind on our mortgage, staring at a foreclosure notice. I was a real estate broker who hadn’t closed a deal in over a year. If gratitude meant counting blessings, I had nothing to write down.
Here’s what I’ve learned since: the gratitude that depends on a good week was never strong enough to carry you through a hard one. It isn’t built for that. That one was built for Instagram, not for suffering.
There is another kind. The Bible calls us to give thanks in all circumstances, not for all circumstances, and not only when circumstances cooperate. That’s not denial. It’s a gratitude anchored somewhere the circumstances can’t reach.
When our blessings run out, you still have the most important thing. You have God Himself, the One from whom every blessing flows in the first place. Blessings come and go. He does not. Gratitude anchored in His character outlasts every season, because His character outlasts everything.
If your gratitude has run out lately, you may not need to try harder at counting. You may need a deeper foundation to count from.
Divine Gratitude: Joy Beyond This World is available now on Amazon.
