Taken for Granted

We have all been taken for granted at one time or another by those we love and care about. And we too (gulp) have taken those we love for granted. When things in life go smoothly, it is very easy to forget the small things as well as important things and just assume that those we love will be there for us when we need them.

This concept could be carried over to our physical body too, specifically to the small, “insignificant” muscles and joints in our body. When everything is working well, we don’t think anything about them. However, work out at the gym for an hour and see how many muscles and joints you suddenly have that you never knew you had before! Just like our joints and muscles, our friends and family are extremely important in our day-to-day life. But watch what happens when for one reason or other, something in life hits us hard and for one reason or the other, we find ourselves alone. Suddenly, the ones you assumed would always be there may not, for one reason or the other, be there. Now we realize something is not right, or even missing, and we feel every bit of the reality that sometimes we have to learn to stand on our own two feet (with God, of course!). In some cases they choose not to be there, but in other cases, life happens and sometimes they just cannot be there for us.

Do you think the same thing could happen in our relationship with the Lord? When everything is going well, we don’t tend to think of God’s compassion, presence, protection, security and provision like we do when a crisis happens and we are suddenly reminded of all that God really is to us. Do you think this hurts God as much as it hurts us when we are taken for granted by someone we love? I would venture to say yes, that He too is hurt when we think little about Him except in times of need.

Walking with Him and being in His presence is a daily commitment, done from our hearts because we love Him and desire to grow our relationship with Him. Anything of value takes some type of work to keep it going, especially good relationships. However, the cost is always worth it if the relationship is valued. If the relationship is not very important, you are less likely to invest time and energy into it. Our relationship with the Lord needs to be held in highest regard every day, and not something to be tossed aside or ignored unless we need something. Unfortunately, this is what we are doing when we take things (or people or even God) for granted.

Besides taking people for granted, how many times do we take things like sight, smell, taste or pain-free living for granted? The majority of people do not even think about these things. But get a bad head cold and we find out how quickly we miss our sense of smell and taste and complain of the inconvenience. How about instead of complaining of the inconvenience, we give God praise and thank Him for these things that we normally have, which are gifts from Him to enjoy?

I admit, I used to take things such as my spine being fully flexible and pain-free for granted until I developed moderate to severe spinal problems that caused chronic pain that brought me to tears at times. However, since God has done some amazing, dramatic healings in my spine, I have learned not to take these things for granted anymore! On the days where I actually feel no pain at all (which is not very often), I thank God and praise Him for the pain-free days and I am fully aware of how much worse things could have been had He not healed my spine! Although it has been a long, hard road, I am very thankful for the progress that has been made in the past two years!

There was also a time where, around the time I was finally diagnosed with my Multiple Sclerosis (after two years of not knowing what was wrong, having multiple tests run and countless problems ruled out and having progressive difficulties neurologically), I was losing strength in my legs over the period of a few months. I could not stand up at all unless I pulled myself up to my feet by holding onto something or pushing up on the arms of the chair with all the strength in my arms to come to a stand. I had to hold on to the top of the car door and pull myself out of the car with my arms in order to get on my feet. It was getting more difficult to walk and it was beginning to take noticeably longer and take more energy to get from point A to point B.

Being only 42 at the time, I knew this was not normal and not a good thing. Scary, in fact. However, God did a miracle in that situation as well! I fully believe in the power of prayer and anointing to be healed (in which faith plays a vital part) and the very next day after being anointed and prayed over by my pastor, my legs were completely back to normal again! Before this time, I had never thanked God that I could get up and walk normally without even a thought. Truthfully, I never even thought about it before. Now, it is a totally different story because I fully realize that without God’s touch at that moment, I could easily have been reliant on an assistive device to help me walk by now. How I (often) thank God for being able to walk on my own now with absolutely no help!!! I no longer take such a simple thing for granted anymore and am very, very grateful!

I do not know what the future holds and how far or how quickly my MS will progress. However, I know the One who holds the power in His hands to give me the ability to do things I normally would not have been able to do on my own. I fully trust the Hands that have already begun a healing work inside my body and will continue to trust Him for my health, no matter which direction it takes. This is one person who is very thankful for the things I used to take for granted!