Taken For Granted

Do you ever take something for granted? Think about it. Are there things in your life that you accept to be patterns that will continue to occur day by day? Can you depend upon the sun to rise and shine each day and the moon to be displayed to varying degrees every month? Can you depend on gravity to keep your feet on the ground and help your vehicle stay on the road and all your other things from blowing around or just floating away into space? Well, unless you’re in the middle of one of those tornadoes in this record breaking year and unless you plan to help NASA build another Space Shuttle or some other private group take more things into space (where other laws are at work), you can count on certain laws here on this earth to help give you stability in day to day living. You can count on or grant that those laws will continue to work. What about human behavior? Can you count on people or organized governments to always to do the right thing? If our governments were that dependable, would our Country and all others in this world be in such economic distress? Upon reflection after the recent 235th Anniversary of America’s Independence, I have been thinking more about things that are taken for granted.

In an age of constant changing and sometimes overwhelming information, it is a comfort and blessing to know that there are some things in life that we can depend on happening and being true! In fact, the many scientific, medical and technological advances in our society are only possible because of the continuing research on our University campuses and within companies around the world that depend on certain laws to be true. Think about that for a moment. If constant change were indeed happening, as is taught through the theory of evolution, then you could not do good research, because the laws would be changing. The fact that we can and do take certain natural laws for granted indicates that there is a consistent and sustaining Power in the Universe, not an ever-changing, evolutionary force.

God has made natural laws to be so dependable, that we even tend to take things and people for granted. We take it for granted that we will have food to eat, health to enjoy life, have a place to live, have a car to drive, have a TV (or multiple ones) to watch and be entertained, have a computer to work on and access the Internet, and even have a cell phone to talk on or text whomever we want, whenever we want to do so. Younger people (and even some older) take for granted that they will have the strength and health to do what they want and comfortably function. We believe that family and friends will always be there for us, until something happens and they’re not. In America, in particular, we often take for granted that we will have the freedom to do what we want and even worship God the way that we want. Sadly, it is often not until we lose something or someone that we are taking for granted, that we come to fully appreciate it or them.

Friend, what or whom are you taking for granted? Do you appreciate all that you have and enjoy or are you caught up in the natural world and materialism to the point that you take your lifestyle and all the things that you have for granted? Yes, we can depend on the daily blessings and the Mercy and Grace that God extends to us, but we dare not take these things for granted. The LORD God will test us to see if we will still trust Him, even in difficult times and situations. If we ever take for granted what we have and fail to thank Him and appreciate the blessings of life, He may even see to it that we come to lose them. Remember that God Is the Source of our blessings and HE is Sovereign over every beat of our heart and every breath that we take. God will one day make all things right and let perfect Justice prevail. We must remember that HE is not mocked and will even let us reap what we sow (good or bad) as Galatians 6:7-9 reminds us. Please do not take HIM and HIS Grace for granted!