SPECIAL GUEST WRITER!

Ya’ll I am so excited for this post because it’s a message that my mom had spoken at her church during their women’s breakfast/brunch. It was SO good, and I am so proud of her! She felt the Lord gave her this as a lesson to learn from some of the struggles she had been dealing with a few months prior. Now since she already had it written out I asked if I could just post it directly on here to share with you all. I’m feel so blessed to be able to share her message, so I’ve kept everything the same as she had it (meaning some of it will be her speaking from her perspective), so here it is… ENJOY!

“I’ve titled my message Who doesn’t like a gift?

Christmas is such a magical time of the year, my absolute favorite time of the year. And I just love that everyone is celebrating Jesus’ birthday whether they are believers or not. It’s that big of a deal, even in the sinful world that we live in.

The definition of a gift is: Something given willingly without a payment.

It’s free.

Nothing quite like opening a present. The whole process is enjoyable. It’s good for the gift giver because they get to put thought into the gift, go shopping and pick it out, wrap it up pretty for you, they have the anticipation of waiting for your reaction. On the flip side it’s also great for the gift receiver because they get to admire the pretty wrapping, they know that thought was put into that gift specifically for them, and they have the anticipation of wondering what is inside.

Imagine someone gave you a gift. It’s for you, it’s already bought and paid for; it’s free. It’s all wrapped up and ready to go, and I promise you that you are going to love it. So, they offer you this gift. They want you to have it, they are excited for you to open it and they want to bless you with it… but you say no thanks. I really don’t feel like I deserve it…. To be honest that would probably be hurtful to the person trying to give it to you and what a waste because the gift that they knew you would love will never get used. Gifts are completely useless if you don’t accept it and equally as useless if you don’t unwrap it. The gift doesn’t change though, regardless of what you decide to do with it.

Well the Lord laid this on my heart a few months ago; I love how the Lord shows me things so simply sometimes. I’m sure ya’ll know where I’m going with this. It seems simple and obvious, it’s not necessarily a new word, but sometimes we need a reminder. Sometimes the simple can get lost in us trying to make things harder than they need to be.

So, the question is, are we accepting our gifts? Are we using our gifts?

We know they are there, the Lord has a big pile of gifts waiting under a tree to be dished out to all of us. They are bought and paid for- they are free. He promises us that we are going to love them.

Before I go any further, please know the Lord gave this to me first. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone. He showed me this before I even knew I would be sharing. I’ll tell ya He took me to the mat on this, I love how He lovingly corrects me.

There are a few steps to getting our first that I’d like to talk about. They don’t just magically show up in our hands. We must do our part. Gotta take it, gotta open it, gotta use it!

Let’s look at a few verses about the Lord wanting to give us our gifts:

James 1:17 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (NIV)

Matthew 7:11 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV)

Everything that we need the Lord has provided to us. This is His promise. The word of God is our life, it’s what we base everything on. It’s our manual, the step by step instructions. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; either you’re in or you’re out. Now assuming we are all in, these gifts (the promises He gave us) are all true and available to us. Psalms 19:7 says: “The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.” The word of God is 100% reliable, it’s perfect and it’s trustworthy.

Then of course there is all the verses about the gifts themselves. Just a few examples of the gifts that God gives us: Grace, healing, peace, joy, love, wisdom, comfort, mercy… the list could go on and on. They are all ours for the taking.

Sometimes we find ourselves going through our day praying and crying out “Lord I don’t understand, where are you? Why do I feel so lonely? Why do I feel so sad? Where is my joy? Why? Why? Why? Where are all of the gifts that you have promised me.” … I’m guessing at some point we have all felt this way…. This is the point I was at a few months ago. Questioning, confused, and to be honest I was mad. We argued, well I argued, and the Lord graciously let me. I wasn’t at a place where I was wavering in my faith; I was in the word, doing my bible study, and going to church. But I knew something wasn’t right. I wasn’t seeing it in my life like I knew I should, I was missing the mark somewhere along the way.

Most of us have the head knowledge of what the Lord promises. It’s gotta start somewhere right. We read it and hear it. Aware that the Lord has made these promises to us. The Lord showed me that’s us excepting the gift (step 1). We are reaching out and acknowledging it by taking it. Being aware of all the wonderful gifts available to us. But to get to the gift I’ve been promised, I’m going to have to unwrap it. Just holding the package doesn’t do me any good. The gift inside is still the same though, the value doesn’t change even if I don’t unwrap it. The head knowledge must go from our head to our heart. You can have all the head knowledge in the world, go to seminary for 10 years but it must go from us knowing it to us living it.

Now this is the unwrapping, finding scriptures about the promises, believing and living it out. This is the key, the game changer. BELIEVING! Believing is a heart issue. It’s the determining factor. Believing by faith activates God to move on our behalf. The only thing stopping us as believers is what we believe. A few verses to reference that are:

Luke 1:45

John 11:40

Mark 9:23

I’m talking about deep down, no doubt at all. Like how we all know the sun is coming up tomorrow, we don’t even think about it.

Earlier I mentioned that Lord took me to the mat. Well this here is where the Lord kind of let me have it (that loving correction). We sing worship songs, have our go to verses or tag phrases-the one liners we’ve been quoting since Sunday school like “The joy of the Lord is my strength” and “Greater is He that is in me then he that is in the world” “The greatest of these is love”, but the Lord said to me “really? Could have fooled me”. We talk about them, sing about them, and pray about them over and over but at some point, we need to stop praying about the same problem and do our part. By faith step out and do something about it. Believe it. Unwrap it, own it! Quit talking about it and live it! (John 14:15)

But gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Some gifts are wrapped very simple. Other have more tape, embellishments and bows. One might only take me 10 seconds to get into, while another one might have tons of tape and take a little longer and need a little more work. Our gifts are a lot like that. Let’s say you’re solid in your prayer life. Not something you struggle with, you opened that gift quickly. It was an easy one for you. But when it comes to joy you feel like you’re having a harder time. This is an issue you’ve been struggling with for some time. This one has a lot of tape and bows, you’re working on it but haven’t quite gotten it open yet. Now if you decide your over it, it’s too much work trying to get it unwrapped and you give up ½ way through, the gift does you no good. You must keep at it until you get the gift in your hands. But why are some gifts easier to open then others? Joy may be hard to get unwrapped (finding scriptures and promises) because in the process of “unwrapping” joy, the Lord may show you that you have a bigger issue unwrapping love and you need to unwrap that first then you can go back to joy. It’s hard to be walking in joy if you’re not walking in love. It’s like getting a new camera. It’s so exciting! You’ve been waiting for it. But it’s not working, well you haven’t opened the batteries of the SD card yet, so you need to open those for the camera to work. Accepting our gifts, unwrapping our gifts and using our gifts all go hand in hand. You can’t use it if you haven’t unwrapped it, and can’t unwrap it if you haven’t accepted it. Remember all these gifts are there, promised to us. It’s never a question of if the gifts promised to you are available.

And remember we are all each unique and different, so don’t worry about how fast someone else is opening their gift. We live in a world where we are going to have some issues and need to deal with them individually; not the same way so and so did it. They may have already had the batteries for their camera. Keep in mind that unwrapping gifts, although fun can also be messy. Look around the living room floor Christmas morning and everyone is done. It’s totally worth it in the end, but a little messy. It took a little time and effort, you maybe even had to stop and get the scissors to get into a few of them.

So, let’s go over the steps to getting our gifts. First, you’ve accepted you gift – Yes Lord I’m aware of your promises. Second, unwrapping your gift – looking up scripture, digging in, your heart and spirit are holding onto the promise. You are believing. Third, now you need to use your gift – walking it out in your everyday life. Becoming who you are in Christ and still believing regardless of your fickle emotions, circumstances or what the world may say about it. Walking in love, with the unlovable or with family. Making sure you are using your joy while your driving in traffic, in line at the grocery store or on hold for 20 min. Being peaceful amid a stressful situation. All three steps are necessary too! Again, you can’t use it if you haven’t accepted it and unwrapped it. But if you’ve accepted it but haven’t wrapped it, it’s still not doing you any good. When you accept it with a grateful heart, unwrap it with anticipation (knowing, believing we’re going to love it because the Lord promised I would), and use it (show it off; look what my dad gave me, I’m so blessed) your gifts will be overflowing. The Lord loves us so much and he can hardly wait for us to open our gifts, like our parent’s feel on Christmas. The anticipate with excitement seeing our faces and reactions to our gifts. Like the excitement from when you were little on Christmas morning. You couldn’t hardly sleep, running out in the morning and seeing all the gifts under the tree. The anticipation and excitement were almost more than you can handle. You’d start opening them, it didn’t matter who long it was going to take, you were going to open every one of them. Then you’d play with them, all day long till you passed out at the end of the day. Only to wake up and do the same thing again first thing the next morning.

Well it’s Christmas time and it seems like the perfect time to get to opening our gifts. Rip into that paper and get it open. Once you get your gift show it off, in fact some of your gifts you won’t have to show off because people are going to come up to you and ask you where you got it, and how they too can have it. You’ll have the opportunity to share with them that your Father gave it to you, and there are plenty more. They are all free and already paid for, and you promise them that they will love it. God wants to shower us with a big pile of gifts.” (message written by Debbie Campbell)

Wow you guys! I really felt moved by my mom’s message. What a wonderful example a gift can give us. I know I have some gifts that I need to get to opening, and maybe spend a little more time trying to get into it. I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things that our Father has given us. I really open you feel inspired to start tearing into yours as well!

Father God with the holiday season upon us I pray that we all remember the true reason that we celebrate. The birth of your son, our savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the many gifts that you have blessed us with, and the many more that you want to give us. I pray for every person reading this that if they have unopened gifts or gifts that they haven’t accepted yet, that they are able to that and enjoy all the things You want them to. Thank you for sending your only son to deliver us and redeem us. Thank you for your unending mercy and grace. I speak life over everyone reading and an abundance of blessings. Amen.