The Gift of God

On Sunday morning our pastor said that “the gift of God” referred to in Romans is literally “the gift of God.” It is God’s gift of Himself to us. Most of us have heard the scriptures concerning the gift of God so often that we tend to not give them much thought. This week, however, I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about God’s gift of Himself to a lost world.

I do not think that we can ever fully appreciate what a priceless gift He bestowed upon us when He gave Himself to us. In giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, He gave us the gift of eternal life. When we chose to accept His gift, we chose a new master. Sin, our old master that results in death, lost its hold on our lives, and obedience, that results in acquittal, became our new master. (Romans 6:16)

If that were all that God had done for us, it would have been enough. Yet, He chose to do so much more. The Bible is filled with names of God that describe the various aspects of His character, and all of those attributes of God are part of His gift to us. They include:

• Jehovah-Jireh—the Lord who provides
• Jehovah-Rophe—the Lord who heals
• Jehovah-Shammah—the Lord who is there
• Immanuel—the God who is with us
• El Shaddai—the all sufficient one

It is comforting to know that we serve a God who is our provider, our healer, and our friend who never deserts us.  When we understand that He is sufficient to meet every need in every situation, we can face life’s challenges with confidence. Yet, most of us do not experience God on any of these levels until we have a need in our own lives.

Desperate financial need may bring us face to face with Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides.  Through illness, either our own or that of a loved one, we can come to know Jehovah-Rophe, the Lord who heals. When we are deserted by the friends and family that we believed would always stand by us, we may find Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord who is there. Through a lifetime of hardships, disappointments, and sorrow, we meet El Shaddai, the all sufficient one who lightens our burdens, renews our hope, and wipes away our tears.

When God sent His Son to live among us and die for our sins, He sent Him in the fullness of all the facets of His character. Because of that most precious gift, we can experience the joy of knowing Him as the one who is closer than a brother, who not only sees our present circumstances, but looks ahead and makes provision years in advance for the day when those needs will occur.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her personal story of homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.