God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Eph 2:8 (NKJV)
It’s my daughter's birthday soon and I cannot wait! I’ve been carefully collecting gifts and planning the day so that she will have some beautiful and fun memories to dream back on. I know that the expense and extravagance of the gifts are not what exchanges or communicates the love between us. The gifts are just a token, a sign, a symptom of my heart filled with love and hope for her. And she knows this because I look into her eyes each night and morning, I hold her hand through the day, I pull her close when she cries and laugh like crazy when she sings… her life is a gift to me, and I’ll give her mine back as my gift to her.
My mum is the same with me. She is a grand gift-giver. I would often come home from school, throw my bag on the floor, open the door to my bedroom, and find a thoughtful something waiting for me on my bed from her. Buying gifts for people is a complete joy for my mum. We went through hard seasons financially, and even in those seasons, the gifts would appear on my bed; mum often sacrificing and going without to bless us and others. During these hard times, the joy of gift giving was felt on a deeper level. It was raw love, not the overflow of abundance. Even now that I’m ‘all grown up’, she finds ways to give to us, and especially for my children. She gives out of a heart of pure love… and love, at its heart, is generous and delights in blessing.
God is the grandest gift-giver of them all.
We’re sometimes tricked into thinking that we have to work for our salvation, or prove ourselves worthy of his blessings. Ephesians 2:8 says that grace and salvation are a GIFT – something we have not earned or won – given by grace, extended with love. No strings are attached, no agenda’s, no conditions. It’s a symptom of God's undying and complete love for us.
God’s grace and salvation come from him. Therefore, they do not depend upon us to be given. And he never takes them back… the gift is never withdrawn. Through every season of our lives, every decision we make – good or bad – the gift of grace and salvation are before us moment by moment, day be day, itching to be received, torn open and owned by the recipient – you.
Through your daily activities – things you have to do, the deadlines, the house cleaning, exam preparation, caring for children, working, exercising, dreaming, cooking, eating, driving… ALL OF IT – Don’t lose sight of this gift which is given whether you are doing a ‘good job’ or not on any of things mentioned above or more.
Take the gift, receive it, open it, own it and be thankful. It is yours simply because you are loved by the most generous gift-giver of all.
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I never completely understood this… One part of my family has been given this gift and another part has not. They have no idea what we’re talking about. Why is that? The part of my family that do have faith got it under circumstances where they were looking for something more, while the part that doesn’t understand it has no interest in it at all. This makes me think that we can take some credit for it… like “Seek and you shall find”. I still give the credit to God, but the whole thing makes me wonder.