The Things We Take For Granted 

by Bro. Philip Largas

Reading for the day: James 1:16-18

IIt happened on a humid day on June 19 2025, approximately 6:10pm. I was blissfully enjoying the cool breeze of an electric fan, typing ideas on my laptop while meditating on a future SPA devotional. Suddenly, the electric fan and the lights abruptly shut off. I thought the breaker tripped but as I checked our group chat, it appears that we had a power outage throughout our building.

In a panicked frenzy, our pastoral staff sought for their powerbanks, others thought to go to Starbucks for power while myself and others reached for flashlights and candles. It’s amazing what we appreciate when the power goes off.

I checked the Toronto Hydro website and it turns out that it won’t be for another 12 hours until our power is restored. We were supposed to have a church service that same evening but since we had no power, we were instructed to spend the evening in prayer and meditation. 

This made me ponder upon this truth: electricity is fundamental to most of our modern activities but we don’t think about it so much until we lose it. We take electricity for granted because we have it in abundance and we desperately yearn for it in its absence. This is not only true regarding electricity but this is true in many of the things we love about life. 

Our tragic flaw as humans is that we seem to take our blessings for granted.

This is true with our health; we think of taking care of health when we find out we are ill. This is true with our material provisions; we become more conscious of our spending habits once we realize we’re not as well off. This is true to our relationships with the people we love; sometimes we hurt the ones we love because we fail to recognize their importance in our lives. Sometimes we fail to recognize the people that help us on a regular basis – our parents, our partners, our coworkers, etc. That is why it’s always important to appreciate the things and the people we often take for granted.

This is true with our spiritual blessings as well. In John 1:12, we have been given the right to be children of God. As children of God, we not only have been given the right to approach His throne of grace in prayer freely, but the fatherly care of our Lord. (Hebrews 4:16, 1 Peter 5:7).

God gave us two forms of blessings: the blessings for this life enjoyed both by believers and unbelievers alike (theologians call this common grace) and the blessings of being a child of God. But even in these things, we take them for granted.

In James 1:16-18, we are reminded that all our blessings are from our Father in heaven. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, we are reminded to always be in a posture of gratitude to God. We have much to appreciate.

One of the first sins of mankind was to take for granted the blessings of God, as when offered to have more than what God allotted us, Eve ate the fruit from the tree. Adam followed suit, thus, losing the blessings the Garden of Eden had to offer. Taking for granted what God blessed us with can also make us feel farther from God, because we forget about the one who is blessing us.

Let’s always remember to appreciate the things God gives us and take care of them. In this Season of Expansion, we are called to win more, pray more and build more. What does this have to do with appreciation? In winning more, we will learn the value of our fellow brethren in the church, as winning souls is a hard task. Praying more is an opportunity to verbally thank the Lord for his daily provisions. To build more is to build up others by appreciating even the smallest things they do for you.

Let’s always remember to appreciate the things God gives us
and take care of them.

Once we appreciate the things God gave us, He sees it and that is how He can somehow lead us to expansion. Appreciate your blessings. Appreciate your family. Appreciate your church and your church leaders. Don’t take them for granted. This is what will help us expand. Gratitude for what we have as we desire to increase the work of God. 

Challenge: Tell someone that has been a blessing to you that appreciates them and specifically why. Then write in your SPA planners what you appreciate from God.