the GIFT GIVER
John 1:14, ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.’ (MSG)
December 6th, 2023
He is the ULTIMATE Gift Giver!
Galatians 5:22-23:
Divine Love in all its varied expressions: Joy that overflows; Peace that subdues; Patience that endures; Kindness in action; a life full of Virtue; Faith that prevails; Gentleness of heart; Strength of spirit. (TPT)
“But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance, about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.’ (MSG)
a Life Full of VIRTUE
Luke 6:44-45, ‘”Every tree will be revealed by the quality of fruit it produces. You will never pick figs or grapes from thorn trees. People are known in this same way. Out of the virtue stored in their hearts, good and upright people will produce good fruit. Likewise, out of the evil hidden in their hearts, evil ones will produce what is evil. For the overflow of what has been stored in your heart will be seen by your fruit and will be heard in your words.”’ (TPT)
‘For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.’ That is Luke 6:45 in the NIV. Goodness! How true Scripture is!
Have you ever tried to get soda from the faucet in your house? Or expected to pour milk from a jug of orange juice? Would you lap water from a toilet bowl or drink from a mud puddle or be able to sprinkle your garden with a hose that is not connected to a spigot? We are also unable to pluck an orange from a peach tree or wander through a vineyard hoping to tug a carrot from the ground. And always, always, one rotten apple can spoil an entire bushel of good fruit, but one apple, wholesome and healthy, can never make that rotten apple fresh again.
See, what is down inside of us eventually makes its way to the surface. If evil has invaded a person’s spirit, then the outcome will be flavored by evil. If there is fear buried within, then anxiety and distrust waft out. If anger and resentment is inside, then we overflow with hostility and profanity. If we constantly soak up negativity, we drown in pessimism and resistance. If we have grown up being told we are never enough, then as adults, we spend our energy convincing others we are unworthy, because someone seeing worth in us is as scary as learning a foreign language.
However, if we concentrate on finding the good in everything, we detect nuggets of decency invisible to the human heart. If we determine to give from a place of abundance rather than from deficit, we tend to see opportunities as many instead of none. Having a reserve inside created with solid deposits of character and integrity causes us to make choices that are healing and helping, not hurtful and harmful. If positivity is within, then calm and confidence will permeate not only us, but also the atmosphere around us. And if we have love and grace inside, then others often will find acceptance and kindness in our presence.
Mr. Webster says virtue is moral excellence, a good or admirable quality. God’s definition is similar, but its roots grow even deeper. God calls virtue righteousness, and while righteousness seems like an impossible attribute, if God calls us to a life full of virtue, then He gifts it into our being. It is up to us to accept, unwrap and use the gift He has placed within. In this life, we are taught to do what is right and avoid what is wrong, but God calls us deeper still. I like to think of it as the bumpers we put up on bowling lanes when kids (and some adults!) bowl, designed to keep balls on the lane, and not in the gutter. God desires us to have a spirit of discernment, so we stay in and on the correct lane, not veering or landing in the gutters of life. Like coloring inside the lines instead of outside the lines.
In God’s economy, we are able to make deposits or withdrawals in other people’s lives. Stephen R. Covey calls it the Emotional Bank Account (or EBA) in his book and teaching called the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The idea is mirrored to the banking world where we are rich when we make deposits into our accounts, and when we make more withdrawals than deposits, we have a low or negative balance. We can have a zero balance with a family member or friend or spouse if we have made substantial withdrawals in our relationship due to poor choices or impulsive, mean behaviors. We can even bankrupt the relationship. Likewise, we can have positive and healthy balances between ourselves and others by making consistent and favorable deposits and installments into their lives. It is possible to be so hard on myself and so unkind that I can be bankrupt personally, and when I am called upon to put my best foot forward, to believe in myself, to take pride in me, I am unable to do so, because I am broke. Simply, I can be relationship wealthy if I have chosen to ‘put people before things’; or ‘use things, love people’ not ‘love things, use people’ (Stephen R. Covey).
A life full of virtue is goodness and kindness and righteousness in all its splendor, and really, what is inside of us is what will come out of us. We can’t produce good fruit, or even any fruit, if there is a bad seed or no seeds planted within. How we nurture what is planted inside also determines what comes up and how healthy it sprouts and how fruitful it grows. Plant good seed, not bad seed; and weed-eat when necessary, so that what grows in the garden of your life is bountiful and enduring, virtuous and life-giving.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
Bobby didn’t know anything different but a life of crime. He recalls sitting on his mother’s lap during drug deals and he never knew who his dad was, but the men in his life who taught him how to be a man were uncles and boyfriends of his mom, and they all ran in the same circle. They were cut from the same cloth. They kept secrets, not their word. They made excuses, not promises. The best days were the ones when no one got caught. Bobby got black eyes for Christmas, not presents. He had a rap sheet as long as a grocery list. He had expensive taste, and eventually, the bond amount matched it. Bobby spent more days in juvee and jail then he did in school, and he was driving get-away cars and moving hotrods and drugs across the country without ever obtaining a driver’s license. It’s all Bobby knew. It is the only example ever shown to him.
Bobby met Jesŭs in prison. Jesŭs met him there. Jesŭs took interest in him, accepted him, spent time with him. Jesŭs changed Bobby’s life. Jesŭs did years in prison, lost his family and everything else that once mattered, and when he was finally released, he came back five days a week to hopefully change the trajectory of the lives of guys like Bobby. Jesŭs hadn’t always been an upstanding, kind, generous and virtuous person, but when Jesŭs was introduced to Jesus (in prison), all that changed. It is almost like God planted Jesŭs there so Bobby could meet him, and ironically, Jesŭs shared in his testimony that there was a man with a sordid past who came to know Jesus while in prison. He then dedicated his life thereafter to helping men like he had once been, like Jesŭs, like countless others.
Life would never be the same again for Bobby. It took a while to clean out all the crud and mistruths and garbage he’d previously been lost in. The bad habits and lies and negativities he had grown up with had to be replaced with new choices and truths and confidences, but Bobby was more than willing when he realized he’d never have to run and hide again. Bobby learned to read and write in prison, and quickly his favorite book became the Bible. When Bobby gave his life to Christ, gradually, the distrust and hatred and wrongdoing he had known all his life eked out of him, ousted by the great love, forgiveness and patience of God, and His many second chances. It was like the biggest raid, the largest seizure, the most incredible bust, Bobby could ever have fathomed, and it was all for him.
Bobby goes where he can today to tell his story. He even has a legitimate driver’s license! He goes into prisons and jails, organizes school assemblies and camps out on street corners, anyplace where hurting and broken people might be found. He wants everyone to know his story. How the kind and generous act of virtue a man named Jesŭs shared with him changed his life forever; how the life-changing, transformative and forgiving grace of Jesus can arrest someone’s life for an eternity and make every mistake worthwhile and priceless.
Our Heavenly Father, the Creator of the Universe, Holy God, the Spirit of the Living God, Perfect One, is the ultimate gift giver. Just like we as parents are eager to give gifts to our children, our Father desires to give gifts that are beneficial and good and profitable for us. He delights in giving gifts, like virtue, to His children for our good, and ultimately, for His glory.
James 1:16-18, ‘So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life, using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all His creatures.’ (MSG)
