10,000 Reasons

Yesterday morning I woke up singing “Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh, my soul. Worship His Holy Name. Sing like never before, oh my soul, I worship Your Holy Name!” That song's title is “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman. What a way to wake up – blessing and worshipping God’s Holy Name! Immediately I knew this would be the topic for my post for today.

Among my 10,000 reasons to be thankful, I must share with you what happened shortly after I typed this post at about 8 am yesterday. I heard the garbage truck (Thank you, God, I can hear!)! I thought: “Yikes! I didn’t think they’d come today since the holiday was last week!” I ran out the front door to catch them, but too late! I noticed they hadn’t picked up the other side of the street so I quickly ran and pushed my packed-full-of- Thanksgiving garbage bin to my neighbor's side of the street (Thank you, God, for our wonderful Thanksgiving meals!). But then I thought they’d question two bins, so I quickly got in my car (Thank you, God, for my car!) and drove to let them know! Came back home (Thank you, God, for my home!) and pushed the garage remote and NADA! Thank you, God, that I had my door key in hand. I ran into the house and garage and saw the big chain had fallen from the motor. I quickly called my Home Warranty company (Thank you, God, that I purchased a Home Warranty!) and placed the repair with them and they showed up last night to already have it repaired and working great! Thank you, God, because that means only a $45 repair fee! Now, I have more than 10,000 reasons to "Bless the Lord, oh my soul!"

I’m quite sure that whole scenario was why I woke singing that song because God was prepping me for my sudden-out-of-the-blue trash and garage door encounters.

“Bless the Lord, oh my soul” were King David's words as he was commanding his soul (his will, mind, and emotions) to bless the Lord. He was encouraging himself with what he needed to do to rise above his circumstances. Those words from Psalm 103 were Matt Redman’s inspiration for this song. In that chapter, David listed several reasons why his heart was full of worship for God: He forgives our sins, heals our diseases, redeems our lives from the pit, crowns us with love and compassion, satisfies our desires and gives righteousness and justice.

I googled Matt Redman and this song, and read what he said to explain it. “If you wake up one morning and you cannot think of a reason to bring God some kind of offering of thanks or praise, then you can be sure there's something wrong at your end of the pipeline, and not His. We live beneath an unceasing flow of goodness, kindness, greatness, and holiness, and every day we're given reason after reason why Jesus is so completely and utterly worthy of our highest and best devotion."

I realize we are one week past Thanksgiving today and it would seem that I’ve posted enough about gratitude and thanksgiving, but for “10,000 reasons” and so many more, I was reminded that putting gratitude as my #1 priority, sure keeps us in a gratitude mode -- even when things aren't going the way we had hoped them to go. Gratitude opens the floodgates to so many more reasons to be thankful -- even when a garage door goes haywire! I’m purposing to follow David’s lead in Psalm 103 to talk to my soul more so my "Reasons List" continue to grow in "blessing His Holy Name". How about you?

Well...Bless Your Heart

I'm called a typical “southern girl” because I speak those words quite often when someone is sharing their concerns or difficulties with me. It rolls off my tongue like water off a duck’s back. But when I say those words “Bless your heart”, I sincerely mean them, because I’ve had a broken and aching heart and I needed my heart to be blessed by someone, so I want to bless others.

Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another. It isn't just words. It's the actual putting forth of our will for the good of another person. It always involves God, because when we will the good of another person, we realize only God is capable of bringing that.

When I was in a store on Valentine’s, I saw this little “Bless YOUR heart” sign and I bought it for ME. Two reasons: 1) After all, it was Valentine’s and since my Sweetheart is in heaven, I knew I wouldn’t be getting another love letter like I received for so many years. I was a little on the wimpy side on that special day, so I encouraged myself with that little “southern girl” statement, and 2) My Mom had coronary heart disease so I wanted that little plaque with those "Bless Your Heart" words to face me while I'm sitting at my office desk that speak blessings over my own heart.

I placed that little plaque by a Certificate of Appreciation I received in April at the conclusion of months of walking out a faith journey with a beautiful young woman in our RCIA classes (discipleship classes). The scripture verse on that certificate is “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:2). The inscription on the certificate says “Because you have served the Lord in His Church through the faithful exercise of your gifts, and because the Body of Christ has been enriched by your faithfulness.” My "heart" was blessed by those words.

A few days ago, that little plaque and that certificate spoke to me more than ever before. I was having one of “those” unexplainable and very recognizable days of wimpiness. Truly I have no good reason to ever be discouraged. I’m way too blessed to ever complain, but sometimes those days just come and I know I can wimpy-along all day there OR, as I did at the store on Valentine’s day, when that wimpiness hits me, I can encourage myself with those words “Bless your heart!” Blessing (encouraging) myself. I remembered King David’s model: “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him… but David ENCOURAGED himself in the LORD his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6)

Uh – no! I don’t think I’m in any danger of being stoned, but I’m learning to take David’s example into my sometimes-weary-wimpy-heart, and when those times come, I’m going to also encourage myself in the Lord my God! Another scripture of King David was this one in Psalm 103:1 “Bless the LORD, my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”

Yes, we can and must bless and encourage ourselves! After all, we are our closest ally and friend to ourselves. Isn’t that the kind of friend we need and want? Bless YOUR hearts, dear friends!