With a show of hands, who has ever received a good and perfect gift?
I kind of have a feeling that your hand will be up right now, not physically though; somewhere in your head…but if you don’t remember receiving a good and perfect gift, then I should say a prayer for you: I pray that you receive a good and perfect gift soonest. I also pray for you that have received a good and perfect gift but just don’t know, because you’re too critical to recognize and appreciate it, I pray you become less judgmental and critical and learn to recognize and appreciate your blessings in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Might sound funny, but if you can’t really remember receiving a good and perfect gift, then you really need to say that “Amen” out loud.
OK, on a more serious note:
I just want to encourage you like I have been encouraged by God. The night before I started writing this post, in the place of study and meditation, I literally heard the Holy Spirit tell me that I’m a gift from God to this world…and as I meditated on it further, He made me to understand that I’m not just any kind of gift but a good and perfect gift…not a permanent gift that the world gets to keep forever, but a temporary gift…because the world does not have the capacity to keep me forever.
So, I decided to analysis the idea of a good and perfect gift. With the help of the Holy Spirit I came up with some truths that can be associated with a good and perfect gift, and that’s exactly what I want to share in this blog post. I had to share because you have to understand that we’re ALL good and perfect gifts from God. God created and packaged us uniquely and intentionally and gifted us to this world. But since the world is not created to keep us forever, we’ll one day return to the One who gifted us to the world.
World here do not just refer to the surface and atmosphere, but importantly and more significantly the people that are therein.
So, let’s just dive into these truths:
From a place of Love
Good and perfect gifts are always birthed out of love, love from the giver. Either the giver loves the person that is been gifted or the giver wants to show love to the person that is been gifted. In our case, it is both. God loves the world, and He thought of what to give the world that will add value to the world and He decided to gift you to the world…to gift me to the world.
So, your parents said they almost aborted your pregnancy because they weren’t expecting you. That’s their issue, God knew you were coming. Before you were formed in your mother’s womb, God called you by name. He brought you here; He just decided to choose your parents as stewards, like He chose Joseph and Mary to be stewards of Jesus.
God didn’t just bring us here from a place of love; He sent His Love with us, to be with us and keep us…until we reunite with Him in heaven.
You see, during Christmas we celebrate Jesus’ birth because we remember that when He came into the world, He came as a good and perfect gift that ended up as the perfect sacrifice for us. We have to understand that when Jesus died and resurrected He made us sit with Him in the heavenly places. He made us fellow heirs of God. He said we’ll do greater works than He did on earth. So, if we are to look at what Jesus did for us and what He made us, then we’ll truly recognize what a good and perfect gift we are to this world.
“Every good gift and every perfect (free, large full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light…” James 1:17 (AMPC)
Very thoughtful
If we have something in common, then you’ve received a gift that the giver didn’t think through or was a bit careless about. I mean a gift that’s damaged or unusable. For example, an expired box of chocolate (gosh! How sad). That’s not our case. We’re like the thoughtful gifts we’ve received. Have you ever received a thoughtful gift? If yes, do you remember her detailed it was? Do you remember thinking, “wow, this person put in so much thought into this.” Well, God did a faaarrrrrr better job, when He packaged us.
God thought about us. From numbering very strand of hair on our heads, to the colours of eyes, to the sound of our voices, to our finger prints, to the shape of our feet, to the colour of our skins, to our races and nationalities, to our temperaments, to our strengths and abilities, He thought about very and all. When He finished preparing us, He looked at us and said, “This is good.” He was so thoughtful about the process that He can’t forget any detail about us. There are about 7.7 billion persons on earth, yet He knows us individually…wow!
Psalms 139:15-17 says, “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being formed in the secret and intricately and curiously wrought (as if embroidered with various colours) in the depths of the earth… Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days of my life were written, before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts towards me, O God! How vast is the sum of them.” (AMPC)
For a particular season; for a particular reason
Gifts are most times given during a particular season and reason, and if not for a particular season, then it is for a particular reason. Either you are celebrating someone’s birthday or you just want to surprise someone with happiness through a gift.
God didn’t bring you into the world in the past; He didn’t bring you into the world in the future, He brought you now, because you are made for this season…for a reason. The world needs you now! We’re like Jesus that came in a season for a reason. We’re just too precious in the sight of God to think we happened by chance. No, we didn’t. We’re God’s deliberate plan, for this time, on earth. That explains why we should treasure our relationship with God, seeking His will for and in all things. We cannot afford to just live life on our terms; because when we do, we’re abusing ourselves…we’re abusing our reason and depriving this season. We also can’t afford hanging around places and persons that don’t see us for the gifts that we are, unless…unless…unless we’re pretty sure and convinced that God wants us to be in/around them, and if that’s the case we have to understand that we’re still gifts to those places and persons, even though they don’t make us feel like a gift, and we don’t feel like a gift in/around them. We have to live life on God’s terms in other to fulfill and keep fulfilling our reason for this season.
See what God says concerning us:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew and approved of you [as My chosen instrument], before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you, and I appointed you…” Jeremiah 1:5 (AMPC)
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation [God’s] own purchase, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9 (AMPC)
Ignite excitement
Gifts, especially good and perfect gifts make people happy. Like Jesus we are JOY to the world. This world should be blessed because of us. Your family, your friends, your colleagues…and every other person in your world should be blessed because of you…because of your presence in their lives. God created us in His likeness, and the Bible says that in God’s presence there’s fullness of Joy, it should be the same with us.
The world is in a fallen state, so there will always be haters, people who will never be happy with you for some reasons or for absolutely no reason at all…well, they don’t count. Their opinion and hatred shouldn’t bother you. Jesus was dissed and hated too, but the opinions of his “dissers” and haters didn’t count. In fact, sometimes God deliberately allows these annoying places and persons to come to us, to help us focus more on our reason for our season. Concentrate on your reason…focus on the places and people God has called you to. He wants you to add value to them. He wants them to be better because of you. He wants to express His Joy, His Peace… and ultimately His Love to them, through you.
“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:13 and 14 (AMPC)
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble and good deeds, and recognize and honour and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 (AMPC)
Wrapped or styled beautifully…but so much more
Good and perfect gifts, most times, come looking beautiful, unless the giver didn’t want to go the extra mile. Good and perfect gifts are often than less wrapped with attractive wrapping papers and beautiful ribbons. Gifts that are too large to wrap (for example a car) are normally styled in a way that shows that they are gifts. But, a gift is beyond the packaging. As much as we always love a well packaged gift, we won’t be excited when we get pass the beautiful package and find something…worthless.
It is important for you to know that your physical appearance is good…and perfect, because God made you. You can’t make yourself shorter. You can’t make yourself taller. God saw and sees you the way you are. He called and calls you good and perfect. Never let body-shamers get to you. Don’t in a quest to change your physical appearance do things that are unhealthy. Yes, eat right, exercise right, take good care of yourself, pamper your skin, maintain personal hygiene, dress up nicely (but decent and modest though), scent your body… as much as you can, make your physical appearance attractive like a well packaged beautiful gift because that’s exactly what you are…but never hate the qualities about you that are not your fault or qualities you can’t change.
Why?
Because. What makes you a good and perfect gift is what lies on the inside of you. Focus on your inside. The nastiness and rudeness and dishonesty and anger and low self-esteem that have crawled into your inner core is not what God put on your inside when He created you. You want to change something about you? Change all that’s wrong on the inside, because when God created you He didn’t put nothing wrong/bad on your inside.
No doubt, we can be attracted to gifts that are carefully and beautifully wrapped with glittering and pleasing wrapping paper; so much so, sometimes we wonder from afar “what could possibly be inside that box?” But, we quickly get pass these wrapping papers when we are anxious to see the gift. Sometimes we even destroy the beautiful wrapping paper and forget almost immediately that we admired it not too long ago. So, your focus can’t just be on the outside because that’s not the real deal.
OK, let’s create a picture: So, you admired the packaging of a gift because of how beautifully it was done and then you quickly get pass the packaging to unravel the gift…and instead of a mind-blowing gift you find an angry poisonous serpent stretching out…what would you do?
Well, you see…what makes a good and perfect gift a “good and perfect gift” is way beyond the package that’s wrapped and styled beautifully…it is what is on the inside.
“…for the Lord sees not as man sees; for a man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 (AMPC)
“Let yours not be the [merely] external adorning with [elaborate] interweaving and knotting of the hair, the wearing of jewelry, or changes of clothes; But let it be the inward adorning and beauty of the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit which (is not anxious or wrought up but) is very precious in the sight of God.” 1 Peter 3:3-4 (AMPC)
“For physical training is of some value—useful for a little; but godliness [spiritual training] is useful and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life which is to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8 (AMPC)
You’re a GOOD and PERFECT GIFT!
Like I mentioned earlier, being a good and perfect gift doesn’t mean you’ll always feel like it or everyone will always treat you like it or everything will always be in place, no. There are days when you’ll want to give up on life and when those days come always remember that what you’re experiencing and feeling isn’t the truth…always remember that storms don’t last forever…always remember that you didn’t bring yourself here…always remember you’re a gift…a good and perfect gift…from God.
God doesn’t look at your mistakes; He looked passed them long, long…long time ago…loooonnnng before you got here. You’re a good and perfect gift!
God is not limited by your limitations. You’re a good and perfect gift!
Addictions aren’t who you are. You’re a good and perfect gift!
You’re more valuable than you can ever imagine. You’re a good and perfect gift!
There are a whole lot on your inside that the world is waiting on you to bring out. You’re a good and perfect gift!
Refuse to believe the lies of the devil. You’re a good and perfect gift!
Surrender all to Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit walk you through life. You’re a good and perfect gift!
It doesn’t matter if you believe or doubt it. You’re a good and perfect gift!
You’re GOOD…You’re PERFECT…You’re a GIFT… FROM GOD!
My prayer for you:
I pray that you see who you are and more importantly…Whose you are. I pray that you understand and embrace your Reason and strive effortless in your Seasons. I pray that may there never come a time again that you see yourself less than how God wants you to see you. I pray that may you always BE where God wants you to be and DO what God wants you to do.
Amen.
Do get in the Gym and do,
Stay Spiritually Fit.
