by Kevin Burton
Tis the season of gift giving and that makes you a gift giver. By now you’re way deep into it, I’m sure.
Are you done with the shopping? Do you have some anxiety about the gifts you don’t have purchased yet? And what about the shipping? You still have some time, if you don’t delay much longer, to get things to your out-of-state family and friends.
You may be really good at this; meeting wants and needs in your family. Me, not so much. I have a hard time thinking of the right gifts to get. Sometimes even when I have a good idea, I think the gift is so perfect, the person probably already bought this thing.
But we have a heavenly Father who has this gift thing down perfectly. Isn’t that an ease of mind, once you’ve pushed aside the commercial side of Christmas and come to terms with what this season is truly all about?
“All God’s gifts are prepared gifts laid away to meet wants He has foreseen. He anticipates our needs; and out of the fullness that He has treasured up in Christ Jesus, He provides from His goodness for the poor,” writes Alistair Begg, speaker on the national Truth For Life radio ministry.
When it comes to gift receiving, have you ever wished your loved ones could read your mind, give you just what you want, and make Christmas morning extra special?
Isn’t it great to serve a God who not only can read your mind, but created your mind? The One who meets your wants, sometimes, but always gives you what you need?
“You may trust Him for all the necessities you may face, for He has infallibly foreknown every one of them. He can say of us in all conditions, ‘I knew that you would be this and that,” Begg writes.
“A man takes a journey across the desert, and when he has completed a day and pitched his tent, he discovers that he wants many comforts and necessities that he has not brought in his baggage,” Begg writes. ‘Ah!’ he says. ‘I did not foresee this. If I had this journey to do again, I would bring these things with me—they are necessary to my comfort.’”
“But God is already aware of all the requirements of His poor, wandering children, and when those needs occur, supplies are ready,” Begg writes.
“It is goodness that He has prepared for the poor in heart, goodness and goodness only. ‘My grace is sufficient for you. As your days, so shall your strength be,’” Begg writes.
“Reader, is your heart heavy this evening? God knew it would be; the comfort that your heart requires is treasured in the sweet assurance of this text. You are poor and needy, but He has thought upon you and has the exact blessing that you require in store for you,” Begg writes.
The greatest gift of all of course, is the gift of Salvation through faith in Jesus. This is the gift that goes well beyond earthly pleasures and conveniences.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2: 8-9, KJV).
“Plead the promise; believe it and obtain its fulfillment,” Begg writes. “Do you feel that you never were so consciously sinful as you are now? Behold, the crimson fountain is open still, with all its former efficacy, to wash your sin away.”
“You will never come into such a position that Christ cannot help you. You will never arrive at a place in your spiritual affairs in which Jesus Christ will not be equal to the emergency, for your history has all been foreknown and provided for in Jesus,” Begg writes. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17 KJV).
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