Written by Why do Christians need to be renewed from time to time in their Christian walk? Sometimes it is due to overt sin, but other times it is due to a sin that is not as pronounced or noticeable. That sin is the failure to love God enough. I don’t know about you, but I find myself taking God, and his many gifts to me, for granted.
You may have experienced this in your life as well. Children most often take their own parents for granted. As one whose parents are deceased, let me encourage to not persist in making this mistake. In relationships often one person will take the other for granted. When we do this we are being ungrateful, and presumptuous.
When you notice this happening to you in your relationships you need to think about the many things about which you have become accustomed and try to imagine life without them. What if you had to go through life without those people or things that you now take for granted?
This is also a very good exercise for us when we begin to take God for granted. Think with me of just some of the wonderful gifts God has given to us. G. K. Chesterton said it well, “When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” Below are some gifts God has given each of us which we should take with gratitude.
1. God has given us the gift of life.
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 (NASB)
2. God has given us the gift of natures beauty.
And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9 (NASB)
3. God has given us the gift of purpose.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Genesis 2:15 (NASB)
4. God has given us the gift of free choice.
And the Lord God commanded the man saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB)
5. God has given us the gift of marriage and companionship.
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”. . . But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called `woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:18;20c-25 (NIV)
6. God has given us the gift eternal life through His Son.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)
Have you taken these and the other wonderful gifts which God has given us for granted? If so, you can begin to renew your relationship with God today. As long as you have breath, it is not to late.
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