Have you ever heard the phrase “Count your blessings.”?  If you think about that it, it really isn't a good phrase. In order to count your blessings, you have to keep score, and you do not want to keep score with God.  When you do, you will be disappointed. You will count the blessings, and then you will think that there should be more. You will also begin to think that is how God blesses, and then when God wants to bless you in other ways, you will miss it.  As humans, we tend to think that we should get the same result, but God wants to do so much more for you.

Sometimes when we count our blessings, we then ask God for one more thing. God can and will do one more thing, but what if God wanted to do 10 more things? We have then in turn actually limited God in how much He can bless us by putting our own qualifications on it and Him.

When we "count our blessings", that saying also indicates that we should be satisfied with the "little" God did for us. God does not want to just do "little" things for you. He may do a bunch of what you call little things, that then produce something amazing.

The story is told of two women in Shanghai who were discussing the topic of pride and began to wonder if Hudson Taylor was ever tempted to be prideful because of his many accomplishments. One of the women decided to ask Taylor’s wife, Maria, about it. Maria promised the woman that she would find out. When Mrs. Taylor asked her husband if he was ever tempted to be proud, he was surprised. “Proud about what?” he asked. “About all of the things you have done,” his wife explained. Taylor responded, “I never knew I had done anything.”

Live like you haven’t done anything. Let God be the Judge, not only of what is wrong, but of what is right! Let God do right by you with no restrictions.

In Luke 14:28, God tells us what we should count, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it."

We are to count the cost of following Jesus, and it will cost you something to truly follow Him. To truly follow Jesus, you have to surrender your whole life to Him. Let me say that again, your WHOLE life. Everything that is a part of your life, to be used by Jesus when Jesus needs it.

That is a huge cost, and Jesus wants to know if you are really in.

Now, here is the good part, when you do choose to count the cost, Jesus does the same. Jesus knows that we will need help, because we may not know how much we have to give. It won’t be enough to do all He wants to do, and that is where the blessings will come, to not only make up the difference, to not only get the job done, but to also reward you for your service.

You go all in, and Jesus will go all in with you, but if you only go part way in, what do you expect Jesus to do?

Now, depending on where you are in your walk with Jesus, being "all in" will look different for each of us. We are in a relationship, and Jesus will see our heart on this journey. Hebrews 4:12. He knows when you are all in. He also knows that each of us have a different definition of that, and as we continue on this journey, we will find that our definition of all in will change, and we will see God bless us even more.

Count the Cost and accept it, and you won’t have to count the blessings, because you won’t be able to keep up with how much God wants to bless you!

Remember Jesus loves you; I love you, and you are awesome!