Good Gifts

Question:  What was the greatest gift of God?  Most Christians would say Jesus.

This morning I thought of at least two other gifts that were and still are very important to us because without them we wouldn’t know anything about Jesus.  One of them was God’s plan that He had before the beginning of time.  If God didn’t devise a plan for us and all who would believe, then we may not have existed or we would be very miserable people.  And another gift would be the Word of God.  If we didn’t have the Word of God there wouldn’t have been any means of knowing what the truth was and that Jesus came to earth to be our Savior.

Sometimes I think about who God is and I can’t understand why He created man in the first place.  God knew that Eve would be deceived and sin and that Adam would sin also and the human race would be affected by their sin.  God also knew that there would be consequences for their sin. The snake would be cursed, the ground would be cursed, women would suffer great pain in delivery and women would be subject to their husband as it says in Genesis 3:16, “Then he said to the woman, ‘You will bear children with intense pain and suffering.  And though your desire will be for your husband, he will be your master.’” (NLT)  Then they would be thrown out of the beautiful garden where they lived.

Another problem would be that all their offspring would be born with a sin nature.  Did He know that Adam and Eve would disobey and sin?  Of course He did, God knows all things.  Did He cause it to happen?  I think not!  He gave each person a free will to make good or bad choices.  Did He cause them to sin and was that a part of His plan?  I don’t think so. The Word says this in James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”  But He knew who would make the right choices and who wouldn’t.

So knowing all this, why did God create humans in the first place knowing all that would take place down through the ages and how he would be rejected and all the problems He would have because of it?  Why didn’t He plan to make everyone love and obey Him?  Think about it, would it really be love if you made everyone love you?  No!  God wants us to love and obey Him because we choose to not because we are made to.

I still don’t understand it but God‘s plan was to have fellowship with people and to have an intimate relationship with all the people that He created. Did you know that God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day? It says in Genesis 3:8, “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”  Because they sinned, they were separated from God and it has been that way since that time until now.  Like I said before, without God’s plan from the beginning and the Word of God we would have never been privileged to know our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  

So all three of these gifts ~ God’s plan, the Word and Jesus ~ are precious gifts from God!  And for anyone who reads this that hasn’t received these gifts they are for everyone who believes.  In John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (NAS Bible)  If you feel God drawing you to Him, you need to tell the Lord that you have sinned and that you are sorry and truly repent and ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins and to be your Savior.  If you truly mean what you say, God will forgive you and you will become a child of God.  Then find a church where you will hear the truth preached and continue to grow in the Lord.

And don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord because He loves it when we do that and He deserves our thanks and praise.  God bless you and have a great day.