Gifts from God, episode 126

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal and also help and hope for your own life journey. So we celebrated Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful time that you received gifts that you appreciate and maybe even some you treasure and maybe a reunion or restoration or some sweet time with your prodigal. And of course, we celebrated the most amazing gift God has given to us, the gift of Jesus. Jesus is surely the gift that keeps on giving.

0:40 And we talked about what he wants from us, but now I want to talk about this week about the gifts that he's given us. And these are not all of them by any means, but here are several important gifts. And remember which one you think God wants to focus on with you. So be assured, our God loves to celebrate us and he gives the best gifts of anyone. First gift that I want to mention is the wonder of his love. Last week we talked about loving him, loving others, but he has offered us incredible love.

1:23 He loves me. He loves you. No Daisy petal wondering loves me, loves me, not no, he loves us. And his love for us continues. For me, I found that I am astonished and overwhelmed and amazed and comforted and encouraged and lifted and strengthened because his love just keeps flowing to me. Wow. I hope you live more and more in awe of his love for you. Yes, yes, I know we, we know God loves us, but do we really comprehend it? I'm just going to read you a few scriptures that will just blow your mind almost with his love for you.

2:10 In the notes of Zechariah chapter two, we read this, I am the apple of his eye. And that means I am someone who is greatly protected. I don't understand all the realities of apples and protection, but that's what it's saying. He's protecting us at all times. Ephesians tells us that I and you were treasures to him. Reminds me that I am part of the riches of his glorious inheritance. Okay. So Jesus gets the inheritance of everything that God has made.

2:53 And it says we are a treasure to him, part of that great inheritance that he gets. Zephaniah three says, he delights in me. He delights in you. I'm told that God is with me. He takes great delight in me. He quiets me with his love and he rejoices with me singing over me. You know, I had lunch with my son and his family and he has a three year old daughter. It was just so fun to have her come in and say, and she was delighted to see me and I was delighted to see her and gave her a hug.

3:38 That's how God feels about us. He also tells us that we are his joy. And Hebrews 12, it says, I learned that Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. And I pondered that a little, you know, in the past. It's like he endured the cross for the joy. The cross was not very joyful. What was his joy? It made possible for him to have relationship with each of us. God brought him great joy. And so he even went to the cross in order to have the joy of loving and knowing and being in relationship with you and with me.

4:25 He also died for me. And because of his great desire for me and you and delight in us, he was willing to redeem me with the price of his own life. It's why he came. What an incredible love. Jeremiah 32, God promises, I will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will never, I want you to hear what he will never do. I will never stop doing good to them. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

5:10 Now I know in our lives sometimes it doesn't feel like he's doing good, but I can assure you we don't see the whole picture. I will always be doing good to them. What a beautiful thought. Psalm 103 says for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. Okay, as high as the heavens above the earth, it's how much he loves us. Psalm 26, for I am always aware, Lord, of your unfailing love.

5:52 Now maybe you've had failure in a love relationship of any kind. And so you know, love doesn't always work. It doesn't. It fails sometimes. And he says, I will always love you unfailingly. Psalm 36, your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. You can't get away from it. It's everywhere his love for you. And so at this Christmas time, I hope you're experiencing that you've received this wonderful gift that Jesus gives to you, that he loves you and he can't get away from that love.

6:41 Then the second gift I want to mention that Jesus gives you is mercy. Mercy is the overflow of his love. Over and over Jesus out of great compassion had mercy on the suffering, the needy, the mistreated and the sinful, you know, people like you and me. Lamentations three tells us the faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness. His mercies begin afresh each morning.

7:21 What an incredible promise. You know, I probably don't sin as much as I did earlier in my life, but I still do. I don't trust him like I should. I say things I regret later and I don't do something I know he wants me to or whatever it is. And it says every single morning, there's new mercy for you. You can't get away from my mercy. Right as it tells us, but when the kindness and love of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

8:05 He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. We can't get it. We can't be perfect. We cannot be sinless, but always his mercy is there for us. Matthew nine says, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. He says, Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they are doing. What an incredible thing that he pours out mercy. And what happens as we receive that mercy and see how much he loves us is that we make the choices to do what he wants and do not do the things that displease him.

8:58 And it's a growing process, but always his love overflows into mercy. And then a third gift that I would mention that Jesus gives you and me is grace. And I say that grace is the generosity of God. For our savior sacrifice, we receive grace that gives us new life, abundant life, all the fruit of the spirit who lives in us, all that we need in Ephesians two. We read in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed to us in his kindness in Christ.

9:44 By grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not of works, lest anyone should boast. So when we think we can be good, he says, that won't do it. He says, but because of my love for you, I pour out grace and grace will cover all of it and give you what you need. In Romans three, we read, and all are justified freely by the grace through the redemption that came in Christ Jesus. Grace, my grace is sufficient for you.

10:25 My power is made perfect in weakness. Whatever our need, Jesus is sufficient for it. His grace takes care of it. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. I like to picture God, Father, Son, and Spirit sitting on the throne in heaven, which I'm sure I don't have a very good picture of. And the Father says to us, as we might be kind of concerned about how we're doing, he says, come on up.

11:07 Come up to the throne of grace and we'll talk it through. He welcomes us because of his grace. You've heard grace probably called God's riches at Christ's expense, and that's a pretty good definition of it. But it's not to be earned. We can't earn it ourselves. But God in his grace does wonderful things for us and to us and through us. And so, again, he's saying, come on, come on up to the throne of grace. We'll talk this through. God's grace could be described as God paying it forward to us. He doesn't wait till we've got it all together.

11:50 And so then what is it that I do in response to that? You know, what do you say when someone gives you a gift? Well, if you really liked it, you give an enthusiastic gratitude and thank you. If it was just something you want, huh, what a gift. You still say thank you, don't you? But here are these perfect, perfect gifts that Jesus is giving you. And he says, what is your response to what I have given you? What has he given us that we've looked at here? Love and mercy and grace. This will cover most of our needs as we live our lives.

12:35 So we need to be giving thanks, a grateful response. Thank you, Lord. I am so grateful. I can't begin to fully express my gratitude. Your giving is beyond my comprehension. It gives me love. He gives me mercy. He gives me grace. And all I can do is say thank you, Lord. And one of the best ways to express my gratitude is to let his love and mercy and grace flow through me to others, including and especially my beloved prodigal, your beloved prodigal, day by day, moment by moment.

13:21 So what about you? How is God's love touching your life today? How is his mercy giving you peace and hope? And how is his grace, especially that grace that welcomes you to come and talk to him? And how might he want you to pass those gifts on to the people in your life? God bless you.