The Gift Of Giving

God loves a cheerful giver! I think it's because it's one of those times in our lives that we are most like Him....giving cheerfully. I always like to look at the relationship between God and Man in the same way I look at the relationship between parent and child here on Earth. The only difference is that God has the capacity to love more than we do. I mean, HELLO, He IS love! We are all still learning what exactly it means to love and be loved like that. The title of this blog entry came to me yesterday while I was working around the house. It kinda' stopped me for a second as I thought about the fact that we couldn't give anything if it wasn't given to us first by God. Our ability to even want to give comes from Him as well. By nature, Man is not loving or giving. We are self-seeking destroyers of everything we put our greedy little hands to. Are you possibly seeing the need for change here?

"God so loved the world that He gave..." (Now if by some strange chance you havn't heard what the rest of this sentence says, I want you to find a Bible somewhere and look for the section of it called "John". Go to chapter 3 and then read the 16th verse.)

It's hard to comprehend anyone giving up their child to be killed by a bunch of people who hate them, not to mention their ONLY child. Now try to imagine God doing it. GOD--the one who has always been and always will be in existence; the one whose love and forgiveness knows no bounds; the one who gave His son as a willing sacrifice so we wouldn't have to go to Hell; the one who is far greater than anything we can ever wrap our minds around; the one whose power and glory makes the greatest movie creation in Hollywood look like a bad B movie. His name is
"Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

We have alot to learn about giving, as you can see. The journey to learning more and more about God is a fantastic and powerful journey. One to not miss out on by any means! You know, if Jesus could die so that I could live, who am I to refuse that gift? Just who do I think I am that I could say no to someone who saved my life, my soul, my everything I have to give? When it comes down to it, you begin to realize that the only thing you have to give is yourself. To some of you, that may sound pretty pathetic because you don't care much for yourself to begin with. So why would anyone in their right mind want you? Let me just say that God is always in His right mind. He doesn't make mistakes....ever. And guess what? HE MADE YOU! The sad part of all of this wonderful talk about you and God is the fact that you really don't know who He is in a personal way. You may be picturing Him in a long white robe, a long white beard, sandals, a huge judgement book and a look on His face that tells you "If you mess up I'm gonna' zap you!". Well, let me tell you something. That's not what He looks like and that's not what He is thinking when He looks at you. I think if we were able to see what God looks like when He sees us, we might see him looking at us with a plea to come home to Him on His face. He sees us in our pain and misery and quite frankly, can't stand to see us that way. It's kinda' like we're children playing in the street with busy traffic while dad's hollering out to us to come home before something bad happens to us and we're gone forever. We can choose to get out of harms way and the fear of death OR we can stay right where we are, telling ourselves that "nothing has killed me yet". It's your call to make. God doesn't force us to come to Him. He wants you to come to Him willingly. Another person's love would mean nothing to you if you had to make them love you. How much better is it to have someone love you because they want to love you. This is what God wants from us. Love Him willingly and become living sacrifices for Him on a daily basis......because we want to; because we want Him to be able to look at us and say "Well done good and faithful servant." It's so much easier to serve someone who is tremendously wonderful to you every step of the way. This is the only slave and Master relationship to be had. Amazing! Just amazing!

So, give what you've been given to give. Give yourself......and give it to God.