{"id":3318,"date":"2016-11-28T09:06:01","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T14:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=3318"},"modified":"2016-11-28T09:06:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T14:06:01","slug":"taking-inventory-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/taking-inventory-blessings.html","title":{"rendered":"Taking Inventory of Our Blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em>Psalm 100:4-5 NLT<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Holidays are meant to be joyful. Our expectations tend toward picture-perfect, Facebook-worthy moments. The reality behind all the fluffed-up posts is often a lack-luster day, yielding strife and complaining instead of love and blessing.<\/p>\n<p>How can we navigate the holidays joyfully when\u00a0we are facing many challenges? Let\u2019s look to the Word of God and set our sights on our blessings. Think\u00a0through the past year and take inventory of God&#8217;s kindness to you; write\u00a0down specific encounters with God&#8217;s faithfulness as they come to mind, big and small. Don\u2019t look at the disasters and painful moments except for how the Lord sustained you through them. Then enter his gates with specific thanks.<\/p>\n<p><em>Father,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>When I look at your blessings, I stand amazed. You have sustained me through trial after trial. You have given me joy in spite of difficulties. Your Word has become more meaningful to me, as it has become the guiding force of my life. My faith has been strengthened through tests, and, Jesus, you have become my most intimate friend, my constant companion, and the lover of my soul.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As this year ebbs away, may my heart make even more room for your grace and glory. May I cherish you more each day, being careful to walk in love as you have commanded me to do, always choosing the path of forgiveness, always guarding my tongue, continually restraining my mind from thoughts that are unlovely, and choosing praise when my flesh prefers to just be \u201creal\u201d \u2013 real negative. Thank you for forgiving me when I miss the mark. Keep my gaze fixed on your faithful love that never fails but endures everything.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100:4-5 NLT Holidays are meant to be joyful. Our expectations tend toward picture-perfect, Facebook-worthy moments. The reality behind&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[1950,1547,1948,1949,147],"class_list":["post-3318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-family-holiday","tag-holiday-family-gatherings","tag-joy-in-the-holidays","tag-taking-inventory-of-your-blessings","tag-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Taking Inventory of Our Blessings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/taking-inventory-blessings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taking Inventory of Our Blessings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100:4-5 NLT Holidays are meant to be joyful. Our expectations tend toward picture-perfect, Facebook-worthy moments. The reality behind&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/taking-inventory-blessings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-28T14:06:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Taking Inventory of Our Blessings","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/11\/taking-inventory-blessings.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Taking Inventory of Our Blessings","og_description":"Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. 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