Why I Love God - He Gives Great Gifts!

More than likely in the coming weeks you will be hitting the stores in search of the perfect gifts for the people whom you love. The holiday season is a time where we show our love and appreciation for the people in our lives whom we hold dear. If asked, most people would likely admit they enjoy receiving gifts and feel it is a great way to express appreciation and love to someone.

As great as getting gifts from friends and family is, they all pale in comparison to the wonderful gifts showered upon us by our Father in Heaven. If we were to take inventory of our blessings, it would not take long for us to realize how good God is. Unfortunately we often miss out on appreciating the great gifts God gives to us because we focus on what we don't have. Christians ought to be a people who are thankful and excited about our many blessings.

The fact that every good thing that I have comes from God causes me to love Him more each day, consider “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). Rusty mentioned in his Sunday lesson that not only has God blessed us greatly up to this point in our lives, but he will continue to do so! What a wonderful feeling it is to know that God will never turn His back on us or decide that we have had “enough blessings,” and turn off the valve!

We have a responsibility of using those blessings to serve God and others. The great truth is when we use our blessings to serve and honor God, He will give us even more to serve and honor Him with! Consider what Luke says in Luke 6:38, “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Take a quick inventory of your blessings, are you using them to serve God and bless others?

Why I Love God - He Is Longsuffering

There are many aspects of the nature of God which I am thankful for. God is longsuffering and for that I am eternally grateful. If it was not for the longsuffering nature of God I would be in bad shape. If God gave me what I deserve when I deserved it, I would not be able to write this article today.

If God was not longsuffering, you and I would be without hope. Why? Because we have sinned (Romans 3:23) and sin requires a payment, the payment is death (Romans 6:23). The longsuffering nature of God gives us time, though not unlimited, time to make our lives right with Him.

We can see the longsuffering nature of God in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament God was patient with the Israelites who time after time rejected His commands and guidance (Numbers 13-14). In the New Testament we see God’s longsuffering as well. Consider what Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” The Lord of the heavens and earth desires you and I reach salvation! He is patient with us, even though we don't deserve it and often times don’t appreciate it. What a blessing it is to serve a God who looks at our rebellions, our mistakes, and our trials, and through them all desires to give us as much time as possible to reach salvation.

Just a side note, if God is longsuffering with us, shouldn’t we offer the same amount of grace with others? Often times it is difficult to be longsuffering when people do or say hurtful things against us. When we compare the longsuffering nature of God to the things we do, it ought to cause us to be more patient with people.

Make no mistake, God’s patience will not endure forever, He tells us so. There is a time coming when He will judge the world (Acts 17:30-31). However, what a blessing it is to know God is longsuffering with us when we fall short of His will for our lives!

Ready To Go Home

Often times we make the statement “I'm ready to go home.” Usually we say this when it has been a long day at work, a long day at school, or even after a vacation has run its course. It always feels good to go home because home is a place of comfort and rest.
       As Christians, we ought to be always longing to go home, to heaven. We often sing the song “This World Is Not My Home,” however singing it is not enough, we must live it! As human beings who live in the world, it is very easy to get comfortable and lose our focus which is to go home, and bring as many people with us as we can.
       To be able to go home to heaven, we must be prepared, we must follow the directions to get there! Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” If we truly desire to go home, we must take the correct route, which is through obedience to the will of God. The world wants us to believe that we can take any path we want to and still arrive at home. We know that if we want to arrive at a destination here on earth we must use the correct streets to get there. The same is true if we want to get to our heavenly home we must take the correct path, faithful obedience.
       If we stay the course to arrive at our home in heaven, it will most certainly be worth it. Matthew 5:12 “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.”
For those who live a faithful life, there is a great day coming. There is no fear in going home to those who are in Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54 “So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: death is swallowed up in victory…”
Are you ready to go home if Jesus were to return even today? If not, please don't tarry long, the time for preparation is now.