James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Hello readers, I hope you’ve had a great week! Today I want to briefly talk about God’s perfect gift to you.

It’s nice to be given things isn’t it. We are coming up to Christmas soon(ish!) and that’s when people give gifts to each other and it’s a very happy time of year.

Often kids are disappointed because they didn’t get what they were hoping for! Not what I wanted!!!

But it’s nice to give gifts and receive them also. And if humans bless each other in gift giving, how much more blessed is it when God gives us something?

And we have a God that gives gifts to men in the person of Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:7,8). And his gifts to us really are as the Bible says in another scripture “unspeakable”. I don’t know if God has ever given you something in life which you know came from him, from his goodness, grace and mercy… and you really can’t put it into words!

I hope he has. What about the gift of life itself? What about the gift of a beautiful sunny day? What about the gift of salvation? What about the gift of a spouse?

When talking about gifts though… we are often “have nots” though… aren’t we? It’s much easier to focus on what we don’t have than what we have.

I’m sure every person reading this has something or things in their life which they want, and are praying to God for… and for many of us, we perpetually seem to be in the “have not” category!

So what’s going on there!? Hmm!

The Bible says we have not, because we ask not! So are you asking to begin with? Believe it or not, many don’t… but then you might say well I have asked many times! Well that’s true… but then what were you asking for!?

And then maybe it was a good thing you were asking for! But you haven’t got it yet, because you’re really not looking for God’s glory in it. Maybe you’re just not ready to receive it. Maybe you’re wanting something for YOU, rather than something ultimately for GOD’s glory… do you have the attitude of getting to give to God?

I was thinking of concept of “get to give”… and Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 showed how a perfect gift is asked for and received. She wanted a good thing from God. And she wanted from God… to give to God. Hopefully we have this attitude to gifts we want from God, I believe we would all receive a lot more!

… I don’t know if that necessarily makes sense, but I’ve understood something recently about God’s gifts to men, and that is that his promises to answered prayer and granting our requests aren’t just false hope and torturous teasings in the Bible at all. He does say it and he does mean it.

God does want to give us good things… but often we aren’t ready to receive them. And often we aren’t truly wanting them for the right reasons. Whatever the case, remember God sees us and our lives and our situation and he’s doing something far above us… remember he is above us after all.

But ask yourself this… if today you DID get what you want from God… how would that help your walk with God? How would that glorify Jesus Christ? You see, we often ask for stuff for ourselves, so we can consume it upon our lusts… and that’s not what God wants us to be like in life.

Why would God gives you something that makes you a worse person and a poorer Christian? What about this… why would God give you something if he can’t trust you with giving you it? I thought about Paul recently… he was trusted with… the gospel! What a gift… what a calling… hows that for something to be trusted with?

It’s not that God is against gift giving and blessing us with gifts from heaven. It’s just we don’t see the whole thing yet. We don’t see perfectly at all. That’s why a big part of this is trusting in God, because he sees everything. In asking for things, we don’t see us and we don’t see him.

We all have to understand this… that God doesn’t just give gifts… he gives GOOD and PERFECT gifts. Aka he’s not like us. I might give someone milk chocolate for a gift which is no good for their health or blood sugar… God doesn’t give us gifts that have poison in them!

So God is definitely for giving gifts. We have more than we even realize usually anyway. But God gives us gifts that are good and perfect and unspeakable, because we get our heart’s desire, but those gifts actually are so much more than just “getting what we want for ourselves” because they help us and help others, and we are capable of receiving them and glorifying God with them!

There’s no need to be guilty about asking God for anything. He tells us to ask! It’s not a crime to want things in life. God does say to open our mouth wide and he will fill it!

I’ve wanted some things from God in my life. And I’m sure you have to. And some things I’ve wanted I’m truly thankful God didn’t give or didn’t give at that time. Because they actually wouldn’t have been good and perfect gifts to me. In fact many things if I’d gotten would’ve really been a curse in my life, so thank you God that you give good and perfect gifts to me. He knows how to give, what to give, when to give… because he knows what’s truly best for us!

I see looking back that God withheld things from me because I maybe even would have used them in the wrong way. See, there’s so much more than our finite brain can wrap around.

I’m not sure what you are wanting from God in your life. Maybe it’s not wrong, maybe you have godly desires… and if so, ask God, trust God with it… believe that you have them. But I do believe in this whole concept giving gifts, God is doing an even greater work… he’s perfecting our faith, he’s glorifying his Son with what he gives us.

So really I just want to encourage you today. Because I’ve received an unspeakable gift in my life. In fact several. Because everything God has done for me and given me truly I can’t do justice to in words. Beginning with salvation. How could I ever put receiving the gift of salvation into a human sentence? I can’t do it justice. Salvation through Christ is THE ultimate gift. And see how most are that twisted in sin they don’t even want that!

I’m sure if you have or when you do receive your good and perfect gift from God you already know or will know what I am writing about. I can honestly say thank you for God for refusing certain prayers and requests in my life… he did answer my prayer, he did give me, he just gave me what was truly good and right and perfect for me… I would’ve settled for far less and ruined my own life and really… and just not ever realized what God truly had for me in life.

So… phew!!! Thank you for sparing me from ruining my own life God! See what most people have is what they got for themselves, rather than waiting for God to give it to them! No, no, no! Imagine pushing through God’s red tape and getting what you want… which is far inferior to what God would freely give us, which is way higher than us, because it comes from above?

So maybe thank God for the timing of his perfect gift. Because it is coming! It’s just coming at the right time for you, in the right way, because God knows more than you! Maybe those gifts you haven’t received yet, maybe just hang on!!! Maybe there’s something a whole lot better than your mind can conceive that’s coming… trust God! He’s our heavenly Father remember, if fathers on earth give good gifts to their sons… HOW MUCH MORE our heavenly Father (Matthew 7:11)? How much more? How much more?

God bless you with a great weekend!

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