christian living

8 Things We Must Not Take for Granted as We Start a New Week

Chuck Lawless | September 30, 2025
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You, like I, probably already have your week planned. It’s likely to be busy, I suspect. In the midst of the busyness, I invite you to join me in thinking about these things we must not take for granted.

  1. God will be faithful to His people even when they are unfaithful to Him. He is faithful because of who He is, not because of who we are. We must not take His grace for granted.
  2. We have full access to His Word. In our language, even. In our hands, too. All of it, from Genesis to Revelation. Millions of people in the world have no such blessing. According to Wycliffe Bible translators, “1 in 5 people, speaking 6,661 languages, do not have a full Bible in their first language.”[1]
  3. God has chosen to get the gospel to us. I cannot explain why God would choose that we might hear the gospel while others have not yet. All I can do is be humbly amazed in gratitude.
  4. Many of us have freedom to worship God without fear or threat. Again, some in the world will pay a price for worshiping God this week. I don’t know how long we’ll have this freedom, but we have it now.
  5. God actually listens to our prayers. In fact, He wants us to run to Him with our praises and requests. That the God of eternity who created all things hears us when we pray is amazing—especially when many people pray to gods who have ears but cannot hear.
  6. No matter what we face this week, all will be okay. That’s because God’s always sovereignly in control. Always. He helps us sing at all times, “It is Well with My Soul.”
  7. For those of us called to ministry—we are not worthy to do this work. We weren’t worthy when God called us. We’re not now, no matter how much experience or how many degrees we have. And, we’ll never be worthy. For whatever reason, though, God uses us. Let’s not take our privilege for granted this week.
  8. We have no promise of tomorrow. I know that point sounds “preachy,” but it’s right. Today is what God has given us, so we need to follow Him each day for His glory.

May all of us honor the Lord this week! He is good.

[1] https://www.wycliffe.org.uk/about/our-impact/

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at chucklawless.com.

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MDiv Preaching and Pastoral Ministry

The Preaching and Pastoral Ministry track prepares students for pastoral ministry in the local church with a special emphasis on expository preaching.

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Chuck Lawless

Director of the Center for Preaching and Pastoral Leadership

Dr. Lawless currently serves as Senior Professor of Evangelism and Missions, Dean of Doctoral Studies, and Vice-President for Spiritual Formation at Southeastern Seminary, where he holds the Richard & Gina Headrick Chair of World Missions. In addition, he serves as Team Leader for Theological Education Strategists for the International Mission Board. Dr. Lawless served as pastor of two Ohio churches prior to joining the faculty of Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY, in 1996. He received a B.S. degree from Cumberland College (now the University of the Cumberlands) and M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees from Southern Seminary. He is the author or editor of twelve works, and he has contributed several chapters to other resources. He and his wife, Pam, have been married for more than 30 years, and they reside in Wake Forest with their Aussie Shepherd, Max.

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