Blessed be Your Name

"Blessed be Your Name, when the sun's shining down on me,
When the world's all as it should be,
Blessed be Your Name.

Blessed be Your Name, on the road marked with suffering,
When there's pain in the offering,
Blessed be Your Name.

EVERY blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise,
When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say
Blessed be the Name of the Lord....."

So often there's a whole lot more emphasis put on the second half of the song, the bits about still praising God even though things are difficult and I think it's almost like people wear suffering as a badge of honour - it shouldn't be like that.

God is good, all the time. ALL the time.

That includes when He's, well, good!

So often we forget to give God thanks and praise for the good things that He has done, almost as if it were going to upset people that God has actually been nice to us for a change.

God certainly does bring us through tough times (note: He doesn't cause, but brings us through) in order that our faith may be made stronger, our characters developed and matured.

But God also knows how to give good things to His children!

I really believe that as a people of God we've got to learn to not be shy about publicly giving thanks to God for the good things that He's done - for the blatantly obvious good things that He's done, not just the obliquely good things that He's done through our suffering.


Right now, I am thankful for...

This cottage that we live in
A bed that doesn't bounce every time one of us rolls over
A healthy bump
An amazing antenatal care team
Good friends and a new family here in the South
Being planted
Breakfast!