Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Woodrow Kroll
Every Gift’s from God
James writes that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). Children are said to be a gift from God, and I believe it because I didn’t earn my own (Psalm 127:3). The grace of God is a gift that cannot be earned (Eph 2:8-9) because it wouldn’t be called a gift if you had to earn it. Paul wrote that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23b). Can you think of any bigger gift than that? God gave us a free gift of eternal life, but it cost Jesus His life (John 3:16). That is the biggest gift of all and is a sure sign of a big God.
Bountiful Blessings from a Big God
Wouldn’t you say that a blessing is a gift? And when God gives gifts, wow, does He really give them like Paul wrote: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3). Such a big gift clearly shows us how big our God is, but no gift is ever bigger than the Giver, certainly not the recipient, which is us. The only time the Giver and the Gift were of equal greatness was when Jesus Christ willingly gave His own life for us, and here is where the Gift and the Giver were both the same: Big!
God Gives Gifts
God gives each Christian the gift of the Spirit, and He also dispenses gifts as it pleases Him. “When [Jesus] ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men” (Eph 4:8). When God extended His mercy to the Gentiles, He “gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way” (Acts 11:17). This was the time when “the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles” (Acts 10:45). There are also gifts of the Spirit, which is what Peter was saying when he wrote, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Pet 4:10) and “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:4-7). It is God who “apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Cor 12:11), and these gifts are intended “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12) and not for our own personal boasting.
Conclusion
I could have mentioned the gifts of home, family, church, jobs, or a multitude or other things. These are certainly great gifts from God, but the greatest gifts are those things that are eternal and cannot be taken away. These are the most precious of all gifts, and these big gifts are a sign of a very big God.
