Reclaiming my Gift

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

A precious gift was given, yet we return it over and over like it was some thoughtless out of the ordinary sweater we recieved from a crazy relative. Can you imagine how that must feel? Did you ever find out someone returned a gift you had given them?, I have, I felt betrayed, a little sad. but I also felt like never given them anything ever again.

Imagine just for a minute...what if our savior Jesus Christ would do that.. What if he refused to forive us when we came to him in our time of need & repentance , even though countless times we've turned our backs on him, returning his gift of eternal love/life over and over. What if we had a limit on his kindness & forgiveness.?

Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

What is grace? Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. It is by grace that we have been saved through faith. We do not have salvation by doing good works but it is the gift of God. If you give someone a gift are they going to reach into their wallet or purse and pay for the gift. If they did, we would be offended . i know i would. God gave us a free gift. It was the most expensive gift and there is no need for us to pay Him anything. We do not owe God anything. This is not to say we are not to do good works.

Ive been losing focus of my life & my faith this entire year. Ive been returning Christs gift. I feel ashamed.. As the days, weeks , and months continue to pass, nothing is changing in my life as a result.. Ive come to a stalemate. The only way i can really describe it, is a feeling of being lost. I've let my attention go to areas in my life, that are....frankly, not important to me. ideals of Relationships and sexual idenity have consumed me. Thats not who i am. thats not how i want to spend my gift.

We don’t owe God anything, but if we love Him, we should be willing to give/renew our life to Him. In showing our love for Him, we should be willing to die for Him. Everything we do should be out of love for Him and not because we owe Him. If we love the Lord then we will obey His commandments. That day that Christ, our Savior, died on the cruel cross of Calvary. That day that He was bruised, beaten and scourged. That day that His innocent blood was shed on the cross for you and for me. That day was the day he showed His love for mankind. All that Christ did was as a gift for the whole world, so that those who believed on Him would be saved. Does that not make you want to love your Savior even more?

I call upon Christ, not always in prayer. Alot of times in haste and desperation. I question him, I ignore him at times. and yet his gift remains.

Every time I think of that day that my Savior died, it brings tears of joy to my eyes for that great gift of salvation He gave to me and I don’t owe Him anything but I love Him for that very reason. I love Him, because He first loved me and that love for Him should be the drive behind everything I do. and i sadly have to admit it hasnt. But today is a new day, a new beginning.