"A Gift We Can Give"

"A Gift We Can Give"     

   

    What do you give to the One who has everything?  "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein" (Psalm 24:1).  All things and people already belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He made all things, and He sustains all "by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3).  Thus, we cannot give ourselves or any tangible possession to the One who already exists as "the Possessor of Heaven and earth" (Genesis 14:19).  Regarding people, this does not mean that everybody knows the Lord in a saving relationship of grace received through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  However, all belong to God in the sense that no created being can usurp or thwart the reality that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  

    Interestingly, the Bible teaches that there is something we can give to our Lord despite the aforementioned truth of His place as "the Possessor".

    "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name" (I Chronicles 16:29).

    "I will sing and give praise" (Psalm 108:1).

    "O give thanks unto the Lord" (Psalm 108:9).

    When we seek to honor, praise, and thank our Heavenly Father in response to the Holy Spirit's moving within our hearts, we "give" unto Him a particular offering that did not exist until we exercised our capacity to adore, affirm, and appreciate Him.  Be it glory, praise, or thanksgiving, our offerings constitute a gift we can give to the One who has everything.  Of course, in the strictest sense, we depend upon Him for the capacity to make our offering.  Nevertheless, something of our own freely chosen determination to lovingly acknowledge our Lord allows us to "give glory… praise… thanksgiving".  This motivates us to seriously ponder our Christ-enabled capacity to engage our hearts and minds in our offerings of love.  

   In the light of this truth, we seek to avoid rote or mindless praises and thanksgivings.  Just as we put time and thought into tangible gifts we give to people, we far more consider our intangible gifts of the heart given to our Lord.  Quality always transcends quantity in our walk with Him.  Why and how we do what we do must accompany what we do.  Thus, we rejoice in the only gifts we can literally give to the Giver of "life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  Moreover, we seek to be sure that we offer with the heart, from the heart, and by the heart.  Our Lord is worthy of such seriously considered appreciation and the gift we can thereby give to Him.

"I will freely sacrifice unto Thee.  I will praise Thy name, o Lord, for it is good." 

(Psalm 54:6)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "Not unto us, o Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and truth's sake!"

(Psalm 115:1)