Taking Life for Granted

This post dates February 28, 2011:

As Christians in America, I think that we tend to take things in life for granted too often. In fact, I think that we have made a habit of doing so. Last night on the way home from my grandparents' house, driving down 360 S, we came to a sudden stop. In the middle lane, there was a car stopped with its emergency lights blinking. On the side of the highway, there was a hummer. So, from what I saw, I assume that the car had rear ended the hummer. The hummer had no damage done to it, but the car was smashed up in the front, and there was glass on the road, which I had to drive around. About another mile down the road, there was a police car and a fire engine, then we saw another vehicle that had had a terrible accident. The part of the vehicle that we saw was completely crunched. It was awful. As I continued driving down the road, I thought to myself, "I think that we often take God's protection for granted. That could have been us." I was telling my dad my observation before going to bed last night, and he said that when people have wrecks, they often ask God why he did not protect them. They never think of all the other times that God did protect them, and gave them safe car rides. Or if they do have a wreck, how God protected it from being any worse, or from anyone being seriously injured. Even if someone is seriously injured, that person did not die, and even if they were to die, if they were a Christian, then they are just better protected from the harm of this world then they ever will be. So, when you think of it that way, God's hand of protection will never leave His children. He may cause something to happen to us to chasten us when we have turned aside from following Him, or he may just cause something to happen to us to show His glory through our lives. And if that is the case, you should feel very humbled that God would choose to reveal His glory in you.
I think that another thing that we take for granted in America is the Bible. A thought came to me this last weekend, that I would really like to share with y’all. I was remembering part of a book I had read before called Safely Home by Randy Alcorn (if you haven’t read it, it should definitely be a book on your list to read!). It’s about persecuted Christians in China. A lot of the information is true, but he does change things around a bit, and of course changes names to protect the innocent. But, it was an eye opening book for me on what is actually happening to Christians in China. Anyways, I was remembering that when one of the men was in prison because he was preaching the Word of God, that he could not have a Bible, but because he had memorized so much of God’s Word, he was able to write out what he had memorized, and read that, and share it with others in the prison. Then the thought came to me. What if someday, God called me to be a missionary somewhere, and my Bible was taken away from me, and I too was thrown in prison to suffer for Christ? The only Bible I would have would be the Bible that I had memorized. This thought has given me a renewed passion for memorizing God’s Word. Just think about it for yourself. If your Bible was taken away from you, the only Bible you would have would be the Scripture that you had stored in your heart. Just think about how precious it is. Here in America, we have Bibles everywhere! I mean, I myself own a pocket Bible, a small New Testament, a bigger Bible, a Bible on my phone, and goodness sakes, there are multiple websites out there for the Bible. I can even go down to Dollar Tree and purchase the whole Bible for the small price of $1. In fact, right now in my room, I have a sack of 10 New Testaments ready to hand out to people. But it isn’t the same on the other side of the world. People are paying high prices just to get one Bible, that the whole church shares. People are paying their lives to smuggle in Bibles. They treat their Bible so sacred, and are willing to give their lives for it, and try to memorize as much as possible, so when they have to pass the Bible along to another person, they can still have God’s Word with them. I am not saying that we don’t treat our Bibles sacredly, but are we willing to give our lives for the sake of having a Bible? Are we willing to hide as much as we can into our hearts, so if our Bible is ever taken from us (God forbid), we still have God’s Word with us in our hearts?
Well, here are just some thoughts that I have been thinking on this last weekend. I hope it has been a reminder to you to not take the seemingly "small" things in life for granted.
"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Because of Jesus' Blood,
Faith Christine
Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 15:10