Monday, January 8, 2007

The Greatest Gift Ever Given


II Corinthians 9:15 "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."

God has given us the greatest gift of all. That gift is His Son Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers to each and every person who is living and has ever lived. When we are given a gift...those gifts are given with love or as an expression of love. The gift of God's own Son was given with more love than we could ever imagine.

For Christmas my two nieces received Aquadoodle mats from their grandparents. Those gifts were given with lots of love. Just as they received those mats...they received other gifts to go with their mats. They received several gifts that were accessories to go with them. I know this is a poor example of what I'm trying to get across here...but along with the gift of God's Son came some other gifts.

God gave His Son and the gift of salvation. Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:". With that gift of salvation came some other gifts.

Let me stop here before I go on and say that God's gift to us is unspeakable. Unspeakable means it cannot be described. How can you possibly describe this gift adequately? There are just no words to describe it that would do it justice.

Along with this unspeakable gift comes a new heart....a clean heart. Without this new heart we couldn't love Him. We also couldn't obey Him. It was impossible to obey God. Before being born-again I had no desire to obey God and was incapable of obeying Him.How many of you obeyed God before you were saved? I know I didn't and I don't believe any of you did either. We also couldn't love Him. We also couldn't love others. I know that in my own life...I thought I loved my husband and children before I was saved. But it wasn't till I got saved that I learned I really didn't love them. Not the way God wanted me to love them.

Next...with this unspeakable gift came peace. There is no peace in the life of a person until they are born-again and have received that new heart. There is also no joy. Joy and happiness are two different things. Happiness depends upon happenings. Joy endures through ever situation, circumstance and trial. Joy comes from the Lord. Nehemiah 8:10 "...for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

There is also the gift of a new hope. Today is the best day in the life of a lost person. They will spend an eternity in the Lake of Fire if they don't repent of their sins and accept that gift of salvation. For us who are saved...we have the hope of a better day a coming. Romans 15:13 " Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."

There is also the gift of a new home. It's going to be beautiful. We'll have loved ones there who are going to greet us. There will be no sin. Our bodies will be like His. Hebrews 11:10 "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.". There will be no more devil...no more sickness and no more death. The best part about our new home is our Savior is there!! We will see Him face to face and get to worship Him as He deserves to be worshipped.

Lastly...along with the unspeakable gift of salvation comes the Comforter. At that moment we repented of our sins and accepted that gift we were given the Holy Spirit to indwell us. John 14:26 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." He teaches us, convicts us when we do wrong and He comforts us when we're hurting.

I know there are other gifts that God has given us to go along with this unspeakable gift of salvation but these are the ones I wanted to focus on.

We have so much to be thankful for. Each of these gifts were given with more love than any of us could ever imagine. I pray this was as much of a blessing to you as it was to me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful post!

CindyMae said...

What a awesome post! It is great to take the time to sit and really think about all the gifts that God has given us. Thank you for this post!

Christopher Cline said...

This is a great post,
We should thank the Lord for all the gifts he has given us.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for not visiting in a while. Hope all's well with you.
Every blessing
Maria in the UK
www.inhishands.co.uk

Anonymous said...

Lol I had to laugh at the pictionary pictures. Some from our church got together to play this at a sister's birthday party. The pictures we came up with!

Jesus is indeed the gift above all gifts.

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