Sent on March 8, 2017

Greetings to all:

Have you ever received a gift that showed the heart of someone who was really thoughtful about their gift giving? They really put a lot of thought into you, as the gift recipient; over time they studied you and found out what kind of gift you would really like. It may not have been a huge gift but the fact that they picked something that meant something to you made it special.

Often what happens is we give things that we like instead of considering what the recipient would like to receive. In other words, we choose the gift without considering the recipient.

While we are thankful for the gesture of an ill-chosen gift we must admit that if we have to ask the question “what am I going to do with this?” it has less impact than if it was something we valued.

Many years ago I received a gift which someone did put a lot of work into, but it really had no meaning to me. While I appreciated their labour of love, the thing is still sitting in my closet.

Have you ever thought long and hard about what to give someone who, as they say “has everything”? These are often people who receive very few gifts in general and fewer even still, gifts that have a lot of thought put into them. If this is true, what do we do with God? God is the greatest gift-giver, and did you know that gift-givers value gifts?

So how do we treat God in the way we approach Him? Again we must not allow ourselves to be confined to giving to God or approaching Him according to what we would like to receive. We must consider His likes or what He values. The only way to know that is to find Him in His word. There is lots of information in the Bible on how to approach Him and what gifts He likes.

Psalms 100:4 tells us to “enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

This tells me that when I want to fellowship with God I need to consider being thankful and to praise Him. Coming some other way is not considering the way He decided He wants to be approached.

Oh, we might say God doesn’t mind, we can approach Him any way we like. Yes, I expect we can just as we are, and there are times for that but that may not be the way He likes, therefore are we considering Him? In fact, we often approach Him the way feel rather than considering Him.

Luke 6:30 says, “give and it shall be given to you.” Considering others in your gift-giving always returns blessing back to you.

You are blessed to be a blessing… love to all …pb