Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? John 4:9-11She didn’t know.
Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” Acts 11:16-18They didn’t know.
But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:22-23What we know.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?” “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:29b-36The Jews didn’t know, the Samaritan woman didn’t know, that He came to save them from their sin. He came to heal them of their sickness; that they could see. But they had no way of understanding that they needed to be forgiven and set free of their sins until they received the Gift of God.
And yet, He let us know. He chose to tell us the truth and to give us the gift of salvation because He loves us. He knew us and yet He still chose us.
What now? When you get a gift, what do you do with it? Do you leave it lying around for a while or do you rip into it and get it out of the box and put it to use? Of course we all would probably say we open it up and use it, but do we really? Are we really using the gifts God has given us?
Do we really even understand what a gift it is or what gifts He has given us? How do we use this Gift of God, which is eternal life? We use this Gift by giving it away, by telling others how they can receive the same gift, by passing it on.
Many of you have no doubt seen the movie Pay It Forward. God paid it forward big time! He gave us forgiveness, salvation from our sins and our selfishness, and all without asking for anything but love in return. God said, ”If you love me keep my commandments.” I say if you love Him you are keeping His commandments. How? You obey His Word. In loving Him, we can’t help but follow Him.
The first commandment is to love Him and have no other gods before Him. If we love Him, we will walk in His truth. We will walk in His love and we will walk trusting Him with all we worry about. We will trust God to take on our finances, our fears, our hunger and our tears. If we really know what we have, our lives will become what He planned for us.
Life does not always come at us easily. Sometimes it slams you into a brick wall, and sometimes it drops you in the mud. Either way that it hits you, you will get through it if you just trust Jesus to pull you out of the mud, and to patch up the cuts and bruises we suffered by hitting the bricks. Peace is in the package, the Gift of Grace. When we trust him and ask for what we need, we will find peace.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Matthew 7:7He is just waiting for us to ask Him to help us with our daily desires, problems and fires. Let’s give it up to Jesus today. Give it all to Jesus.
Dear Heavenly Father, we give to you all our desires, our dreams, and our hurts and pains. We thank you for accepting them and fixing things so that we can walk in peace. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Suggested readings: Deuteronomy 4:1-40; Romans 11:1-36; Romans 6:1-23; Acts 11:1-30; John 4:1-11