Happy Kids!

We are going to continue for a few more days looking at what God, the Father, has provided for children, for us. He has planned for us to live joyful lives…

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as a good gift. A gift from the Father.  The Holy Spirit was sent to help us. He is also called the Comforter, and by definition, that means counsellor, intercessor, advocate, strengthener and standby. He intercedes for us.

This verse also says the Holy Spirit will remind us of all things Jesus spoke and He will teach us all things. When the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, He reminds us of God’s Word and instructs us on how to show our love to the Father.

The Father only gives us good gifts. He is not looking to make our lives miserable or downtrodden.

      “Now you are sad, but I will see you again, and you will be happy. You will have a joy that no one can take away. 23 In that day you will not have to ask me about anything. And I assure you, my Father will give you anything you ask him for in my name. 24 You have never asked for anything in this way before. But ask in my name, and you will receive. And you will have the fullest joy possible.” John 16:22b-24 ERV

      “Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows those lights. He is always the same.” James 1:17 ERV from

As I said, our Father is wanting to place His best at our disposal. Let’s look at one other thing the Holy Spirit does for us. He fills us with the power or ability that we need to victoriously defeat Satan, our enemy, who tries to deceive us and steal our inheritance.

      “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes into your life. You will tell about Me in the city of Jerusalem and over all the countries of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NLV

With the Holy Spirit constantly reminding us of God’s Word and giving us the power to follow it, failure is less of an occurrence in our lives than when we try to do it all on our own. Now, that is a good gift!

As sons of God, we have been given the same power as our older brother, Jesus. It is only through our ignorance of the Word and/or our willful disobedience of the Father’s instructions that Satan can steal our power.

      “Jesus has the power of God. And his power has given us everything we need to live a life devoted to God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus chose us by his glory and goodness, through which he also gave us the very great and rich gifts that he promised us. With these gifts you can share in being like God. And so, you will escape the ruin that comes to people in the world because of the evil things they want.” II Peter 1:3-4 ERV

These verses plainly state that we have been given everything we need for life and godly living. The Father’s exceeding great and precious promises have been given so that we might reflect God’s divine nature. This is a facet of our relationship with Him. He wants us to be victorious while we are here on earth as well as in heaven. He wants us to imitate Him, just like Jesus did.

The Father has placed His light in us so that we can shine brilliantly, “Like A Diamond”, and as His joyful children we bring the light of His goodness to the world.

Receiving It All!

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.

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. 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.