God or His Gifts?

Christmas is coming. Have you made your wish list? Are you excited about getting gifts or spending time with family and loved ones? Do you desire you husband’s gifts or your husband?

Do you desire God or His Gifts? Do you enjoy sitting in His lap or just desiring that He makes your life easier? Boy, that question has caught me a couple of times! This goes along with my last post of yielding. Am I seeking God for a relationship – the good, the bad, and the ugly (in my limited scope), or am I seeking a holy Santa Claus that will give me what I want?

Sometimes, I hate to admit it, but I want what I want. I beg God for what I think is best. But when I back away, calm down, and let Him be God, then what I get is always better!

Let me put that into context. I spent 2008 in bed. After two major back surgeries, lots of pain, nerve damage, and eventually codeine dependence, I came up for air and realized that I wouldn’t have traded the time and sweet fellowship with Jesus for a pain-free year! No, the physical and emotional experience was not good, but having to spend that much time alone, unable to do anything on my own allowed me to slow down and be still. I spent more time in the Word of God and in prayer. I knew a peace that I have rarely experienced before. When I yield my rights and desires to an omnipotent, caring, loving God, I am rewarded with Him. And that’s enough!

What about you? Are you yielding up those things in your life that you complain about? Body image, singleness, sickness, grief, busyness, etc. to your Father Who Cares for You? Try it! You will experience sweet release!

The beginning of this journey of desiring God rather than His gifts is getting to know Him through Bible study, prayer, sermons, fellowship with other believers and reading about ordinary people with great faith. The next step is learning to praise Him no matter what your circumstances are; to call upon Him when you are overwhelmed and to practice trusting God for all your needs.

Hint for the Day: My boys thought that sweets were the best thing ever! They wanted it all the time. Of course we said, “No,” some of the time. They had a week where they really complained about this. So, we decided to teach them that Mom and Dad know best. When they came down for breakfast the table was full of ice cream, candy, chocolate milk, etc. They thought they were in heaven. We let them have all they wanted. Lunch time came and we again put the sweets out. They weren’t quite as excited this time, but indulged anyway. By mid-afternoon, they were dragging! Dinner was the same, and they all begged for “real” food. We finally gave in and made them something nutritious. For quiet time that night we discussed asking God for what we needed, rather than what we wanted and how we can trust God even when we don’t get what we want!