Gifts God Would Love, episode 125

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 how are you doing with the holidays? Surviving so far? If you love a prodigal, I know it can be challenging. I find, personally, giving gifts at Christmas, birthdays, or anytime often lifts my spirits. And so I work hard at trying to find just the right gifts. Speaking of birthdays, we're almost there. The day we celebrate the birthday of our Savior.

0:46 I like to consider, therefore, what Jesus might like for me as a birthday gift. And I've thought of several things. As I mentioned, each desirable gift our Lord might like, take note of something you might want to give him. You can do all of them, but for sure, just, you know, which one really stands out that maybe this is what Jesus would love to receive from you as a birthday gift. First, my heart. This is the most important one. And if I had only one gift to give, this would be it.

1:26 He says his greatest desire is that we would love him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And that is, with our whole being, with everything that we are, he desires our heart to be his, that we would love him. He desires to be first in our affections, that is, king of our hearts. And as I grow to love him like that, then I am ready to give him these other additional gifts. But they will often flow out of, I've given my heart to the Lord. The next gift for Jesus is my will.

2:10 Actually, this one's pretty hard for me, even still, because growing up, my greatest desire was always to have my own way. And my family would agree with that, and that I actually usually got my own way. But meeting God, I said, I think I choose your way. And throughout my walk with him, we've had many conversations about my way or his way. I sometimes lobby for my good ideas, but he has convinced me that his way is always better than my way.

2:52 There have been some difficult, very difficult times to give him my will, to choose his way over mine. When I was planning to go work on a magazine, I had to choose God's way, which was to work with the ministry I'm a part of. And then he let me work on a magazine, so he was so kind. And then another time where I had to choose his way over mine, I was dating this guy, Steve Douglass, for five years. And people said, give up on him, give up on him. And I said, OK, I'm done. And I said, Lord, I'm done. I can't wait any longer.

3:32 And the Lord said, wait, don't give up. Don't quit. He was so worth waiting for. Without a doubt, it works best when I surrender willingly. So he asked for our will. He also asked for my hands. Now, that seems a little funny. I always say I don't do hands. That is, I don't make things or draw things or build things or fix things. I just do words, not hands. And so when God asked for my hands, it reminds me of his conversation with Moses when Moses said, I can't speak well.

4:16 I can't go to Pharaoh and tell him what you want me to say. And God said, what's in your hand, Moses? And Moses looked and in his hand was his shepherd's staff. And God said, that's what we'll use. And sure enough, God did use that shepherd to bring down plagues on the Egyptians, to part the Red Sea, to provide water from a rock for the people. His response to me, give me your hands, the gifts that I have given you. I will amaze you with how I will use you. He also asked for my feet.

4:57 Seriously, he wants my feet? He does. That is, he wants me to be willing to put my feet in motion, to go wherever he asks me to go. That might be to a physical place or an opportunity like doing a podcast. It might be someplace scary or uncomfortable or to get engaged in a challenging relationship. He says, I know you don't know where I'm going to send you, but I know this. I know that he has promised to go with me. The first words he said to me almost after my husband moved to heaven last year, and I said, how am I going to live without him?

5:44 And the Lord said, I will be with you. And he has been. And so whether it's our prodigal or going someplace scary or just circumstances that happen, he says, whatever it is, wherever you go, where I'm taking you, I am with you. So he wants our feet. Now those gifts are fairly tangible to understand. Our heart and our hands and our feet and our will. Those are the things that he asks for us.

6:24 But then there are some other things that he would really love to see us giving him. These are gifts that have to do with how we relate to him. It's more about relationship than just knowing him and letting him work. And the first one is trusting. He asks us to trust him. Jesus talked often of the power of faith, of believing who he is and what he is like. He tells us to have faith. He asks the disciples, even as he still asks us, where is your faith?

7:04 He says nothing is impossible to those who have faith, who will trust him. Author Brennan Manning, in his wonderful book Ruthless Trust, describes trust as faith in action. When I put feet to my faith, my belief in Jesus, I entrust myself, my life, my needs, my fears, my hopes and dreams, even my prodigal to him. Trusting him is saying, I believe that you're God and you're good. We're going to talk about that next week.

7:45 So trusting is a gift he would love us to have all the time. Another one is obeying. In our relationships, we often look for proof of love from others in their actions. If you love me, you will. And sometimes we don't say that, but it's kind of how we are thinking a lot of times. If you love me, you wouldn't do that. But if you love me, you will do this. And Jesus also looks for action that demonstrates that our love is true. He says in John 14, if you love me, you will obey my teaching.

8:27 That's not always easy, but he says his teachings provide the how-tos for life and health and joy and meaning and our obedience to what he's teaching, what he's asking of us. That obedience says to God, I love you, I trust you. And it brings him great joy as well as amazing benefits to us. And then he asks us to be loving. The greatest commandment we are to obey is to love God with your whole being and to love others as you love yourself.

9:12 When our greatest love belongs to Jesus, he is pleased, but he desires that our love for him lead to love for others. A new command I give you, love one another. Love as I have loved you. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's almost impossible. Love like Jesus? How did Jesus show us love? Oh yeah, he laid down his life. He went to the cross. But he asks us to love others like he has loved us, to be there for them, to care about them, to be there when they need someone, to serve them, to give, to whatever is needed.

9:59 And he promises to go with us. The primary way that we lay down our lives in love is by giving time or help or money or encouragement. Jesus really likes this gift, and we often receive back more than we give. And then thanking. Thanking. Scripture is pretty clear about this gift. In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. You've heard me say this before, I know. Say thank you in everything? That makes no sense.

10:43 How do you say thank you for tragedies, betrayals, losses, disappointments, a lost prodigal, even the smallest pains of life? Because God is God and God is good, saying thank you is one more way we express trust in God. That he cares about us and will work even terrible things for our good. Another gift that gives back. God loves as we give, as we surrender, as we say yes, as we give these gifts to him, they all give back to us.

11:26 And so it's kind of a selfish thing that we get to do. We get to give, but God's going to give to us in return. And of course the best gift, the one that makes all the others possible, finishes the song, What Can I Give Him? Give him my heart. So don't wait till Christmas, which I know is soon. Wrap these gifts up right now and offer them to your Father in heaven. I have a sweet Christmas gift for you. A new playlist I call Music for the Hard Times. I think it will be helpful through any hard times that you're experiencing, with your prodigal or otherwise.

12:14 And it will encourage you and lift you up, I believe. And you can find it in the show notes. Just click on it and you can listen to some amazing songs that will be just what you want in these hard times. So let me summarize. It's Christmas, it's the birthday of Jesus, and we get to celebrate him by giving him the gifts that will be most meaningful to him. Our hearts, our will, one of the hardest. Our feet, our hands, just trusting him, believing, trusting him.

12:57 What a gift that is. Obeying, that's the next thing that happens. Loving him and others and learning to thank in all things. So I pray that this Christmas will be so beautiful for you, that there will be new connections with your prodigal, new ways to show love, new lays that you see this person responding to the Lord, and that your relationship with God will develop and grow and deepen during this Christmas time, especially as you offer him the gifts that will please him so much.

13:43 Thank you, God bless you.