Several
years ago I had the thought/God told me/God spoke to me (mostly I discern
God’s voice through my thoughts) with the words, “It’s all gift”.
The way I know that something is from God is by matching it with
scripture and with something awesome being awakened within me.
Here is the thought/message from God that awakened me to God in a new and
powerful way.
“It’s all gift”.
Everything about my life is gift.
All of it.
I have neither earned nor deserved anything.
It’s all God. All
God. Where
I was born, to whom I was born, my DNA, the people who have populated my life,
even the efforts that I put forth to maximize what’s been given to me . .
.where’s that from? It’s
not from me. Even
that is from God.
It’s all God.
I
find this so, very, very amazing and humbling and confidence building and it
makes me love God all the more.
But that’s not all.
It’s
amazing to come to the communion table knowing the sin and evil and selfishness
and all the things undone in my life and all my avoidances and sloth and pride
and . . . you
name it, the worst that exists in the world is in me.
I am what’s wrong with the world!
(and, FYI, so are you),
yet God forgives all of it by absorbing all that my sin has rightfully
earned. What
I on my own have earned (nothing but deserving the worst) Jesus paid the price
for. Absolutely
incredible. When
I think of this I now begin to “get it” what love means.
It’s
all gift. Here’s
how the apostle Paul put it.
“it
is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the
result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about
it” Ephesians 2:8 (TEV
result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about
it” Ephesians 2:8 (TEV
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