How have you been blessed recently?
Isn’t it funny how that question can sometimes stump us? Depending on our frame of mind, we might have to work pretty hard to string together even a short list.
Thanksgiving season is a time to reawaken to the reality of how abundantly blessed we are. If your blessing list seems a bit short, here are some ideas fresh from the mission frontiers to lengthen it:
Are you an Iranian refugee living in a Turkish city where it is illegal for you to work? To eat, do you have to work “off the books,” getting paid a quarter of the typical wage, if your boss decides to pay you at all (p. 14)? No? Then consider yourself blessed!
Have you struggled most of your life with demonic harassment, visited by an evil spirit every night (p. 06)? If not, then praise God for your gift of freedom in Christ!
Is your brain so fried from studying a new language and culture that you actually forget your own age (p. 12)? If this is not you, then be thankful for the simple joys of fluent communication and the comforts of living in a familiar culture.
These examples are taken from just the first few pages of this magazine. Read on for many more. There’s nothing like the mission field to remind us how tremendously blessed we are!
If you really take time to think about it, I expect you are most thankful for one thing above all others—that you can place your hopes and fears in the hands of your loving Savior who took away the eternal curse that you deserve and gave you the eternal blessing that He deserves (Isa. 53:4-6). This profound sense of thanksgiving to our Redeemer is the reason AFM missionaries leave many of life’s blessings behind and go all over the world to invite the unreached to “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations” (Ps. 100:4, 5).
