Do stuff with and for your neighbors
Your Primary Gift
Have you ever really struggled over finding the best gift possible for someone for whom you care deeply? It could have been for an important birthday, or maybe it was an engagement ring or a significant celebration. Finding just the right gift for someone that you really care about is not easy. It involves understanding and connecting with the likes and desires of the recipient. And, for the gift to be particularly special, you'd like it to also express something of who you are and/or how you relate to that other person. (If you have never really tried to give an extraordinary gift to someone - or if it's been a long time, you can simply receive this paragraph as a prodding to give it a shot.)
God is the Author of all gift giving; He is the gift-Master! "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights ..." (James 1:17) He also loves you very much - that's why He created you. God so loved you - that He created you. In fact, you are God's primary gift to you!
I realize this question may seem strange, but can you receive yourself as a gift from God to you? You don't exist on your own; but only as God's gift. The first and primary recipient of this wonderful gift is you. He made you, so you can enjoy you - and so you can share your life and enjoyment with Him.
Not only are you God's primary gift to you, you are your primary gift to God. You don't have real/complete control over many things in this world, but you do have control over yourself. So, your primary gift of love to God is to give yourself to Him in humility and obedience - this is worship! You are called to, "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)
As we receive our lives as gifts from God, so we can receive Jesus and the eternal gift of our lives. Out of this place of double thankfulness we offer our lives to God in thankful faithfulness; our practical expression of worship. This understanding is bedrock to functional faith. We honestly cannot really love God and/or others if we don't receive God's love for us in ourselves.
I encourage you to receive this real and tangible love from God - the gift of who you are. Take some time to sit with yourself as God's gift to you. Let this reality wash over your assessments of yourself. And, take some time to express your thanks, and your devotion to worship and follow Him. You are God's primary gift to you; and you are your primary gift to God.
Receiving God's gift with you,
Pastor Tom
tgriffith@rolcboston.org
www.rolcboston.org
God is the Author of all gift giving; He is the gift-Master! "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights ..." (James 1:17) He also loves you very much - that's why He created you. God so loved you - that He created you. In fact, you are God's primary gift to you!
I realize this question may seem strange, but can you receive yourself as a gift from God to you? You don't exist on your own; but only as God's gift. The first and primary recipient of this wonderful gift is you. He made you, so you can enjoy you - and so you can share your life and enjoyment with Him.
Not only are you God's primary gift to you, you are your primary gift to God. You don't have real/complete control over many things in this world, but you do have control over yourself. So, your primary gift of love to God is to give yourself to Him in humility and obedience - this is worship! You are called to, "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)
As we receive our lives as gifts from God, so we can receive Jesus and the eternal gift of our lives. Out of this place of double thankfulness we offer our lives to God in thankful faithfulness; our practical expression of worship. This understanding is bedrock to functional faith. We honestly cannot really love God and/or others if we don't receive God's love for us in ourselves.
I encourage you to receive this real and tangible love from God - the gift of who you are. Take some time to sit with yourself as God's gift to you. Let this reality wash over your assessments of yourself. And, take some time to express your thanks, and your devotion to worship and follow Him. You are God's primary gift to you; and you are your primary gift to God.
Receiving God's gift with you,
Pastor Tom
tgriffith@rolcboston.org
www.rolcboston.org
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