Deborah McDermet

Here’s how we know when a gift is from God: it is perfect! James tells us that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”¹ My question is, then, is there a precondition, a requirement, a stipulation to receiving these good perfect gifts? (Because I would like to get more gifts, please!) No. There is no requirement necessary. Gifts cannot be earned! God gave us his Son because he loves us. “For God so loved the world that he gave us his beloved Son.”² – not because we love him or are good people but because he loves us that much.

How often, then, should we expect a gift from God? Often. As a matter of fact, Paul asks “What do you have that you did not receive?”³ Everything we have is a gift! Everything!  God is generous. He loves to give us good gifts. He longs to give us good gifts. Isaiah writes “Therefore the Lord (longs for and can’t wait) to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself (rises up and jumps) to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”⁴ Note:  God does not “bless” the ones who wait, but those who wait for him are the blessed (the happy and contented and lucky) ones! Why is waiting for God considered a blessing? Because he is faithful. He will never let us down. Ever!

But many times, we do not receive his gifts! Why? Sometimes we ignore his gifts—too busy, too insensitive. Sometimes we refuse his gifts—too proud, too independent. Sometimes we return his gifts—don’t want them, don’t need them, never asked for them. Sometimes we take his gifts and never use them. But God loves to give us gifts.

As a matter of fact, God has already given us everything we need! Peter tells us “His divine power has given to us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”⁵ Once we accept God’s gift of Jesus, God gives us everything we need to live a godly life – and living a godly life is where we experience our greatest joy because it is how we were created to live! This desire, though – to want to live a godly life – is a process; although our eternal destination changes at once and forever when we accept Jesus as our Lord, our desire to want the things God wants takes time because we still live in this fallen world and battle with our human nature.

One more thing about God’s generous giving. Sometimes God rewards us for living righteously! Yes, we are rewarded for doing the right thing! Sometimes God gives us a reward because he says we have earned it. These rewards are not gifts because gifts cannot be earned. But rewards are! They are prizes! Bonuses that we have worked for, that we actually deserve. We read in Proverbs that “The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.”⁶ It’s a sure thing.

Now, this is a bit of a slippery slope here and probably the reason few sermons are preached on this topic. We are not to work for our salvation (because we cannot earn that). And we are not to work in order to get a reward. We work to please God. And when we please God, God wants to please us right back! And so, sometimes he rewards us!

For example, Proverbs 25:22 says God will reward us if we take care of our enemies! “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”⁷ And Proverbs 19:17 says we also will be rewarded if we take care of the poor. “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” David writes in Psalm 62:12 “To you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.”⁹

There is so much more to say on this, but I’ll stop here. The point is that God loves to give us good things. It is who he is. It is what he does. If we are not receiving good things, something is wrong with us, not God. Something is wrong with our actions or our attitude or our perspective that is keeping us from having them. God is good. All the time. The Lord longs for and can’t wait to be gracious to you!

¹James 1:17   ²John 3:16   ³1 Corinthians 4:7   ⁴Isaiah 30:18   ⁵2 Peter 1:3   ⁶Proverbs 11:18   ⁷Proverbs 25:22   ⁸Proverbs 19:17   ⁹Psalm 62:12