All Good Gifts

People that know me might use the word "control-freak" to describe me.  I'm used to having authority and control over everything and anything.  I'm a planner and I account for things that can go wrong.  When I plan things out I prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

As we get older and have opportunity to plan a lot more events we learn that things rarely ever go as planned.  Life happens and things we didn't anticipate or account for come up.  The execution of the plan didn't quite fit the picture perfect image we had in our heads.

Last night at a community group meeting we were talking about stewardship with our time, talents, and treasures.  Often we have these big ideas of how we will use the money we have.  We plan on saving money to make future purchases.  We think about investing money to turn profits for the future.  We intend and plan to give money to charitable causes.  At the beginning of the year most of us are overly ambitious about how we will use our time.  It's a fresh year and there is so much to do!  We don't want to waste a second of the New Year and book every minute of our day so we can accomplish all the things that we want to.

Unfortunately, our best laid plans rarely turn out the way that we want.  It's not that the things go really bad, but more often than not what happens is a pale shadow of what we planned and imagined. What happens rarely ever meets our hopes and expectations.

Why is that?  Well with our time, talents and treasures we think that all of these things are things that we earn.  We are always struggling and fighting to have more time.  A lot of our brain power, energy, and life gets spent pursuing and accumulating wealth just so we can feel like we have financial mobility.  Our talents are things that we've worked hard to develop.  Our talents belong to us, we get to decide how, if, and when we use them.  Treasures like an expensive car or a coveted position belong to us.  We worked hard to earn those things.  Relationships that we have with people, we were the ones that invested time, energy and money into those relationships.  The point is that everyone thinks that everything we have is something that we earned, bought, or made.  We are self made people.  We went out and got things for ourselves.  That's why we feel like we need to be in control.  Because we earned what we have in life and we don't want to let our hard work go to waste.

But maybe we should rethink this idea because the bible says in James 1:16-18

16 Don’t be deceived, my dearly loved brothers. 17 Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights; with Him there is no variation or shadow cast by turning. 18 By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth[f] so that we would be the firstfruits of His creatures.

Every good thing that we have in our lives is a gift from God.  The money we have, our relationships, our time and talents all come from God.  They are gifts, things received not earned or deserved.  And these gifts were given with a purpose.  God says that followers of Jesus were chosen, "by His own choice."  It says that God gave us new life through the message of Jesus Christ.  Our lives too are a message to all creation exalting the generous grace of God our Father.  All our time, resources, relationships, and talents are gifts that are to be used for the purpose of bringing God glory because He is the giver of all good gifts. 

So when we think about how we should live our lives, spend our money or use our gifts we need to remind ourselves that everything we have is already a gift freely given from God.  It takes a little of the pressure off of ourselves so that we don't worry.  God's Word says He doesn't want us to be worried because He knows what our needs are and He will provide (Matt 6:25-34, 1 Pet 5:7).  He wants us to have peace (Jn 14:27).  

But the other part of knowing that God is the giver of gifts is that He gave us gifts for a purpose.  The gifts we've been given are meant to be used.  Our gifts are tools we've been given to build up the kingdom God. A clear image of this idea in modern literature is C.S. Lewis' "Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe."  Father Christmas comes bearing gifts to the Pevensie children.  Each of the gifts are different but all are for the purpose of aiding the children defeat the White Witch and establish a new kingdom.  The same is true for followers of Jesus.  The gifts we've been given are meant to build up the kingdom of God by helping all citizens of the kingdom experience freedom from the yoke and bondage of sin.

Scripture for further thought:

• 1 Corinthians 12-13
• Ephesians 4
• James 4
• Matthew 6:19-34
• Ephesians 2:9-10

Reflective Questions:
1.  How can we remind ourselves that everything we have is a gift from God?
2.  Does knowing that God is our provider and giver of good gifts help us loosen our grip on possessions, wealth, relationships?
3.  Are we using our "gifts" for the purpose God intended?
4.  How can we remind ourselves to use our "gifts" for God's glory?
5.  How can we encourage other follower of Jesus to use their "gifts"?