Often times during the Christmas season, the season of giving, another trait rears its ugly head. Greed or wanting to have it all is not a desirable characteristic.
However, a giving heart wants our loved ones to have all that we can possibly give. Having all and giving all come from to entirely different motivations. Wouldn’t it be strange if on Christmas morning when all the presents are passed out if we or one of our children took just one gift and without opening the rest said “this is enough for me, I don’t need any more” and pushed the rest of the gifts aside?
The giver of those gifts would be disappointed, I’m sure. Each gift had been hand picked, even hand designed and there they sit unopened and ignored. That would be so sad.
Truth be told we are all guilty of doing that with God’s gifts in one way or another.
“I pray that God will be kind to you and will let you live in perfect peace! May you keep learning more and more about God and our Lord Jesus.
3 We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. 4 God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.” II Peter 1:2-4 CEV
God’s word says that He has given us EVERYTHING we need for this life but too many are willing to only open the gift of salvation and leave the others untouched. God gave us many great and precious promises so that we could live a daily life focused on His goodness and grace.
We accept that Jesus died to forgive our sins but then continue to live in guilt because of the things we’ve done. Along with salvation comes the gifts of peace of mind, joy, strength, freedom from fear, grace, mercy, protection, provision, rest and kindness.
Our heavenly Father has provided all of these through His promises. However, many times we leave these gifts unopened and ignored because we don’t have knowledge of them. If we don’t know the gifts have our name on them then we fail to receive what the Father has designed especially for us.
The verses above tell us that the Father has made many gifts available to us but we only discover that as we learn more and more about Him.
“We praise you, Lord God! You treat us with kindness day after day, and you rescue us.” Psalm 68:19 CEV
Day after day is giving us His kindness and his protection. Day after day He sends His joy and peace. Day after day He unfolds His love before us. He is a loving, patient Father and He wants to give us all we need to escape the corrupt influences of this world.
It isn’t greedy to take every gift the Father provides. Completely the opposite, it’s a sign of accepting His love, having it all.