Don’t Take Praising God for Granted!!!
Psalms 34:1-3, “I will
praise the Lord at all times. I will
constantly speak his praises. 2 I will
boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart. 3 Come, let
us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us
exalt his name together”.
King David was one man who praised and worshipped God with
boundless enthusiasm. We can find a plethora of his praises in the Book of
Psalms. He would not only recount God’s numerous blessings to him, but also,
call on others to join him to praise God. David is unique when it comes to
praising the Lord. As he recalled his many blessings from God, you can feel his
genuine admiration and appreciation for them.
What about you? Do you truly appreciate God for all He does
for you? As teenagers, life seems to revolve around your parents who give you
things you need. Have you ever thought about who gives your parents what you
need? What about those things you have that your parents can’t give you? Besides,
do you appreciate God when you do well in school, escape from trouble, learn
from an experience, recover from illness, receive sudden but greatly needed
gifts, etc?
If you do express gratitude to God in these times and others,
good for you but if you do not, you may be taking God’s blessings for granted.
God expects us to praise Him in good times and in bad times too but in many
cases, as teenagers, we only remember to praise God when things are going well
for us. That is why it is easy to take things for granted when the going is
good. We just expect His blessing as our entitlement rather than something we
should receive with gratitude.
Why do we take the
blessings of God for granted?
1.
We feel entitled to them. We neglect to praise God because
we believe we have ‘earned’ whatever we have. Like ‘I studied so hard that I
passed my exam’; ‘My uncle is the boss there so he gave me the job’. That is a
dangerous path to walk. We cannot afford to overlook God’s goodness and
faithfulness at all times. We should never do so.
2.
We are greedy. We take for granted what we
already have and yearn for more that we’d like to have without praising God for
any of them. This has every likelihood of getting us into trouble. Step back a
little – count today’s blessings and praise God for them; whatever you need
next, He’ll provide according to His will.
3.
We consider them insignificant. Have you ever praised God for the
gift of sleeping and waking up every day; for the air we breathe; for good
health; for sound mind; for journey mercies; for ability to eat and drink
unaided; to read and study with understanding; to see the sun, moon, stars, and
flowers; to speak effortlessly; for food on the table, clothes on your back,
and a roof over your head; for your family, friends, neighbours, and
colleagues; just to mention a few? These are great blessings that we ought to
praise God for but because they seem inconsequential, we take them for granted.
4.
We forget easily. In the same manner that we take
the blessings of God for granted, we easily lose sight of the enormity of what
we receive from God. Do we remember to praise God for His grace; for
forgiveness of sins; for the Holy Spirit that guides, directs and empowers us;
for the Bible that is our Manual for godly living; for our parents, teachers,
pastors, people in government, etc; for your school, the church and people who
help and support you daily?
1
Corinthians 4:7, “For
what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God
hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though
it were not a gift”?
Whatever
we have; whatever we are; and whatever we will be is given to us by the
Almighty God. We are nothing without Him and whatever we claim to have is
insignificant without Him. When we take the things of God for granted, we
become ingrates like a man called Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26:14-15, who received
help from God and became very powerful which made him arrogant and led to his
downfall.
To
be concluded next week by the grace of God…
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