God’s Good Gifts
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 6:38 (NIV)
I was invited to compete in a golf tournament. On the first day of the competition, there was a large room full of tables that had free gifts (free in the sense that you already paid for them through your registration, but you could take one from each table if you wanted one). So I was going around, collecting free gifts from the various tables, and putting them in my bag, and I started to wonder how I was going to carry all of that stuff on my plane ride home. One of the gifts I picked up was a Yeti cup that had the title sponsor’s logo on it.
Now, the last thing I need is another Yeti cup because I have several at home, so I said to myself, “I’m going to keep it out for people to see. Somebody’s going to say something about it and I’m going to give it to them. Maybe I’ll barter for some golf balls or something else they have.”
So I go to the next table, and it has shirts laid out on it. I pick up three of the shirts because I’m trying to discriminate which color I want. I’m only entitled to one of them, but I’m comparing the three to figure out which one I want.
The nice lady who’s working behind the table says, “What a nice Yeti cup. I really like that.” So I extend it and I say, “Take it.” She says, “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly.” I say, “Yes you can. Let me teach you. Extend your arm, and open your hand.” I put the cup in her hand and said, “See, it’s easy, isn’t it?”
I started putting two of the shirts back down when she says to me, “Sir, thank you for being so nice. You know, we’re almost at the end of the day and you’re one of the last people to come through, so why don’t you just take all three of the shirts?” I said, “I couldn’t possibly.” She said, “Yes you can. It’s easy. Open your hand.” She grabbed them out of one of my hands, and put them in the other, and she laughed and said, “See, it’s easy, isn’t it?”
I said, “Look at how God works. You were blessed by what I gave, and I was blessed by what you let me keep.” I feel that way about the Lord’s interactions in our lives.
My friend, don’t get sidetracked by all the Lord is requiring of you and pulling from you and stirring in you. Look instead to all the Lord is letting you keep. Tonight, when you lie down, no matter how taxing this day has been, you’ll be able to do so with a supernatural peace that He gives. God gives you His power and blessings and joy in measures such that you don’t even have room enough to receive them.
What a generous God we serve.
Resurrection
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Romans 6:4 (NIV)
The core of strong spiritual living is attachment to and understanding of resurrection.
What proves and confirms God’s power is His ability to bring people back from dark and dead realities—whether physical, spiritual, emotional, or otherwise. If you want to measure how God is working in a person’s life, don’t look for signs and wonders floating around them. Look to the evidence of resurrection in their life. There is no miracle that is as confirming as the resurrection of a person’s life from a dead state to a living hope.
Don’t ever minimize the kingdom of God down to performance and demonstration because there can be no performance or demonstration that is stronger than God’s power to resurrect a human life that was once in meaningless existence but which God has raised to meaning and purpose.
This revelation is as relevant for us today as it was when Jesus walked this earth. We are not nurturing our spiritual lives to perform for people as if our religion is for entertainment purposes. We can’t measure each other’s spiritual relationship or strength on performance.
Instead, we are nurturing a spirituality that offers a huge revelation, and that revelation is this: God is gifting to every one of us a real path from death to resurrection.
Today
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43 (NIV)
When the criminal on the cross next to Jesus repented of his sin and asked the Lord to remember him when He came into His kingdom, Jesus responded with these words of acceptance and assurance: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
God’s grace is what makes today the start of everything different. Jesus offers to change your mind, change your heart, change your life—and He offers it all today.
He doesn’t say, “Make your confession and I will put your forgiveness on an installment plan.” He doesn’t say, “Due to a high demand and an industry backlog, we’re waiting on parts to come in and I’ll have to place your prayer on backorder.”
No, Jesus’s timeframe is today. When you repent, you get today shaped by the Lord’s will. You get today graced by the Lord’s forgiveness. You get today strengthened by the Lord’s power. You get today justified by the Lord’s sacrifice.
You also get peace by the Lord’s atoning work at Calvary. You get your weaknesses made perfect in the Lord’s strength. You get the spiritual riches of His kindness and grace.
And that grace guarantees that all of it can be yours today when you repent.
What a difference today makes!
Give God What Belongs to Him
They brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew 22:15-22 (NKJV)
God gives you freedom. He gives you freedom to imagine, freedom to be inspired, freedom to aspire, and freedom to go about testing assumptions. In fact, He supports this freedom so much so that He infuses grace in it, power to it, anointing over it.
God supports the time you focus on you—the things you do for you, the thoughts and opinions and convictions you generate through your own experiences, your interactions with others, your upbringing, your exposure to thought leaders and the sharing of their opinions, and the traditions that help to frame all of this.
These things are what you pay to Caesar.
But before you give your life to those things, remember why God gives you freedom. God always expects that you pay Him what you owe Him, which is prioritization of the Word of God in your life over everything else. Pay Him what you owe Him by holding Scripture in your life as the highest authority over everything else. Pay Him what you owe Him with thoughts filtered through the Holy Spirit instead of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration filtered through your convictions.
These things are what you pay to God.
Prayer’s Purpose
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5 (NKJV)
Prayer is not a magic wand.
Prayer is not a genie in a bottle.
Prayer is not a lottery ticket.
Prayer is not a fairy godmother.
Prayer is not a roulette wheel.
Prayer is a spiritual grounding. Prayer is a weapon of protest. It’s the protest you put up against your flesh. When your flesh says, “I want to do this,” prayer raises the protest and says, “I’m going to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding.”
Prayer is a strong act of human defiance against self, and a strong act of human reliance on God. When you pray, you’re not attempting to control God. You are grounding your thoughts in the will of God and you’re making the powerful protest statement: “No matter how my life unfolds, I’m going to interpret it through lenses that are spiritual. I have other choices, but because I belong to Jesus, I’m going to seek God’s direction. I could seek retribution. I could get revenge. I could go the way of the flesh. I could let my mind wander. I could listen to the advice of others. I could go crazy like the toxicity of this vitriolic culture. But I’m not going to do all of that. I’m going to talk to Jesus about it so that every decision I make is grounded in the Lord’s will and clothed in the Spirit.”
