Do not take Him for granted

"I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds." Psalm 9:1 ESV

After getting in an early morning pool workout yesterday, I excitedly headed to church, grateful to be worshiping with my church family once again after services were canceled more than two months ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Walking into the doors, I smiled and waved at these people whom I dearly love and had missed so much and desperately longed to touch. Then, sitting down in the sanctuary I had sat in countless times before, I looked around at my ‘family’ now sitting 6ft apart from one another and was immediately overcome with the realization that I had taken handshakes, hugging and even this Sunday morning ritual for granted. And as I sat considering the countless other things I had taken for granted, I fought back tears as I silently confessed to the Lord, "I have taken You for granted too Father. Please forgive me." 

And you know, if taking something for granted means failing to properly appreciate a person or a thing, especially as a result of over-familiarity, the majority of us would admit to not properly appreciating the things God has blessed us with. Think about it. God gives us all good things that we take for granted - and when we take them for granted, we take Him for granted. For instance, how many times have you and I said thank you Lord when we turned on the tap and clean water flowed out? How many times have we said thank you Father when we put our key in the ignition and the car started? How many times have we said thank you God when we woke up to a new day with air in our lungs? How many times have we thanked Him for the stars in the sky? And the answer to those questions quite simply is... not enough.

So let us, like the psalmist, take the time to "give thanks to the Lord" and to "recount" His "wonderful deeds" each and every day that we might not ever take Him for granted again. After all, everything we are and everything we have comes from the Lord and He is so very, very, very good to us.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us so many good things that we do not deserve. Forgive us for not thanking You as we should and help us to never take You for granted again. You are worthy of all our praise Lord for You alone are the Giver of all good things. It's in your precious name we pray Jesus. Amen. 

Happy Running!!!

So good to me - Zach Williams