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The Giver

    When we view God do we view Him as a means to get what we want, or is He what we want? Those are very different things. Sometimes I feel as if I am using Jesus to get what I want like a spoiled child asking for a new toy. I get impatient about things I feel I am entitled to or that He has promised me. I believe that I am not the only one who sometimes has treated our God like this.

    The Lord does have promises for us that are written into His word. He has given us the right of sonship and sees us through the eyes of His perfect Son. But for us to act as if we earned those things is completely incorrect. They are gifts from our loving Father. So why do we use the giver to get to the gift when it should be the opposite? The gifts point to the giver!

    If you don't feel like you are getting a lot of "gifts" at present, maybe it is because your heart is too much invested in the gift and less in the giver. All Jesus wants is our hearts and if something He does to point to Himself will actually take away our focus from Him, He may hold His hand back to keep our hearts pure above all else.

    Where is your heart at today? Have you been angry with Jesus from withholding His blessings and gifts from you or have you been seeking His heart? Thankfully if it is the former we serve a God who makes it easy for us to turn back around and start making the right decisions-- no strings attached. Seek His heart today.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'" (NIV)

Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (ESV)

Philippians 2:21 All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Romans 12:3-6 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them (ESV)

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