Forget Not
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits (Psalm 103:2)
This simple verse of praise and remembrance - coming from a chapter speaking of the enormous, eternal and great ways of the Lord towards us, can also lay a meaningful foundation for us in how we regard our financial condition and giving to others.
As we are approaching the Thanksgiving season... regardless of your current state of finances, consider these sobering statistics that reflect as an American how you compare to the rest of the those in the world:
-If your household has the U.S. median income of $71,000, it places your family in the top 4% of the richest in the world
-If your household has over $93,000 in wealth (all assets), it is in the top 85% of global wealth
-If you have sufficient food, decent clothes, live in a house or apartment, and have a reasonable reliable means of transportation, you are among the top 15% of the world's wealthy
-In the U.S., the bottom 10% of household income at $15,660 is over 5.5 times the average global income
Beyond finances, we can be thankful to have access to reasonably good drinking water and basic sanitation, something that 26% and 46% of the world's population is lacking respectively.
And returning back to our opening verse to "Bless the Lord", according to the U.S. State Department, 74% of the world's population lives in countries with serious restrictions on religious freedom.
We have very much to be thankful for
Why parade these statistics out? It is not to make you feel bad, but to understand how much you are blessed. I'll frankly share my three intentions, along with some encouraging verses related to them:
1) To increase your gratefulness to the Lord for His many blessings towards you, including being born in this country
At all times and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father (Ephesians 5:20)
2) To realize that your condition is not likely as poor as you think, and to increase your willingness to humble yourself and make spending changes that will allow you to pay off debts
God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace to the lowly (James 4:6)
3) To have increased compassion towards others in need - especially around the world, and to give to help meet their needs
O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His doings among the peoples! (Psalm 105:1)
That last verse encourages us to proclaim what the Lord has done. But also consider how we can "make Him known among the peoples" through our giving, which can reach beyond our physical presence all around the globe.
To increase your awareness of how your giving is personally regarded by the Lord, read this verse and then the next one...
In Psalms 116:12 it is written "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? (How can I repay Him for all His bountiful dealings?)". According to the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, here is one way:
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me".
Your giving becomes thanksgiving in the hearts of those needy others that receive from your giving
God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,
Paul
