It’s the Gift that Counts.
Imagine your best friend has given you a gift. It’s wrapped in heavy paper with a perfect bow on top. On the tag is your name, handwritten and then signed ‘with love’.
Day after day you marvel at its beauty. It never occurs to you to rip past that outer layer and open it.
As time goes by, the wrapping paper fades. The bow starts to sag. It’s just heavy and hard to carry around. You grow tired of celebrating something that has lost its “brand-new shine”. Your interest and passion and gratitude fade, because you never cared to unwrap the treasure inside.
As you watch this video, does the story sound familiar?
If your best friend actually gave you a gift, there’s no way you would be able to resist opening it up and examining the contents: trying it on, or tasting it, or doing whatever it is you need to in order to enjoy the gift that has been selected especially for you.
That’s how gifts are meant to be enjoyed, so why on earth wouldn’t we fully enjoy the gift that God – who knows us better than any friend – has given us?
When we invite Jesus into our lives, it doesn’t end there. He wants to call our hearts ‘home’. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in us and wants to set us ablaze with passion for the gift of eternal life that God has given us.
That passion is illustrated by the way we live and the way we share that passion with the people we meet. Sometimes our lives, like Jesus’ life, will require sacrifice. We will suffer and need to endure heartache. But we don’t need to be afraid, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love” (2 Tim. 1:7 ESV).
His Spirit will refresh us as long as we invite Him to be active in our hearts. This gift won’t get old and dusty, the more you use it, the better it gets. The more we share that treasure with others, the deeper our own joy will become.
This treasure Jesus has entrusted to us is the abundant life: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10 ESV)
If you allow Him, Jesus will radically transform your life into one of abundance: a life that looks like His.
Will you say this prayer as a way to unwrap the gift He has given to you?
Dear Jesus, I want you in the center of my life
and I commit, through your power,
to serve and obey you
any time, anywhere, at any cost, to do anything.
Anishur, thank you for your comment. It is very refreshing and energizing to hear that these postings bless and benefit people. In the article a very important sentence says “If you allow Him, Jesus will radically transform your life into one of abundance: a life that looks like His.” and this is because God infinitely and perfectly loves you. Because of the perfection of God’s being, His innate nature, He cannot do otherwise for that is what “God is love” means. This means that when we live with our wills yielded to Him, He will arrange our lives in the best possible manner so as to grow us more Christ-like. There can be no higher goal in life and having this goal dictates that you make His will your will. May God bless you today with exactly what you need for today.
Its about faith in God. I always like t read this kind of post. thanks for sharing it, Keep sharing there are people those are finding such nice post.Thanks once again
Mina, I would add that faith is to believe that God is GOOD, in spite of all the troubles we face. Faith is to trust that God will ultimately reveal Himself fully to those who know Him and all the contradictions of this life will be resolved. A lot of things happening in the world, the experiences you’re having, are not God’s doing at all. Jesus taught that the world we live in is broken and suffering, so God’s plan is to renew the earth and redeem His creatures from suffering, and until that happens we grasp onto the revealed truth by faith. What do you think?
God has no name. Every Religion is God’s religion. Faith is not in prayers. Faith is to believe in GOD Blindly, in every circumstance. I have no control over my Life. GOD is presenting experiences. I have only my reactions. How I react to a situation or circumstance determines my life.
good article thank you for posting it