Every good and perfect gift

We have nothing to give that didn't first come from your hand,

We have nothing to offer you which you did not provide

Every good, perfect gift comes from your kind and gracious heart

And all we do is give back to you what always has been yours.

Who has given to you that it should be paid back to him?

Who has given to you as if you needed anything?

To you and from you comes all things O Lord

And all we do is give back to you what always has been yours.     Matt Redman

We do truly come into the world with nothing and we leave taking nothing with us.  We arrive as naked babies and we depart leaving all we have accumulated over the years behind us.

In this materialistic world we place huge value on things, our possessions and who has got what. We admire the rich and their lifestyle and despise the poor. Yet as Christians we must get hold of the truth that everything we have comes from God’s kind and gracious heart.

‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ the Psalmist declares in Psalm 24:1. God and God alone is the Creator and whilst his creation may be very pleased with their efforts at creating things including wealth from what he has provided, the reality is that even these abilities come from him (Deuteronomy 8: 18).

When God gave Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle and all its furnishings, he anointed Bezalel ‘with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts – to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship (Exodus 31: 3 – 5). Moreover God appointed Oholiab to help him. Their skills came from God.

It can be rather galling to think we are not as brilliant as we thought and that everything we have has not come from our own efforts. However actually getting hold of this truth that it all comes from God is very liberating. 

God has given us gifts and abilities because he wants us to use them both for our enjoyment and to bless others. If we let God use us, our abilities become liberated from what we can do to what God can do through us. I am sure Bezalel was amazed at what God enabled him to create.

Even in the area of wealth creation, God will use us to be a great blessing to all around us. We all know ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35) and it is indeed a great joy to give gifts or money. Our world desperately needs people who can handle wealth correctly and the first step in that is acknowledging it didn't come from us and our own labours in the first place. When we realise everything comes from God, it is so much easier to pass it on to others, knowing that God will always pour in where we have poured out.

The Bible is full of assurances that God will satisfy our desires as we trust him (Psalm 37: 4 and 145: 19 as examples). We never need fear being generous.

We have nothing to offer God that didn't come from him in the first place. Our very breath is a gift from God.  God wants to bless us with so much more but the key is to realise it all came from him and with thankful hearts try to become a giver with a heart like God’s because he is the ultimate Giver. 

Inheritance versus heritage

People will spend a lot of time and effort making sure they leave an inheritance for their children and family. They will work hard to leave their house, money, jewellery and possessions to those who will remain when they die.

However what is even more important is to not just leave an inheritance for our children but to leave a heritage. Heritage is something that is handed down to our ancestors and often it is non material. Family stories, practices, ways of doing things and faith. As Christians passing on our Christian faith is the best possible heritage we can leave our children and family.

One of the greatest blessings for a parent is to see their children and grandchildren living out a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for themselves not based on parental wishes or peer pressure but out of personal conviction. This is the heritage we would most like to pass on.

However the Christian faith is a choice and whilst we can do all we possibly can to pass it on; prayer, church, Bible teaching, lifestyle and so on, at the end of the day it is a personal decision for every individual. One of the greatest heartaches for parents is to see their children turn their back on the faith they were raised in.

Sometimes this may be for obvious reasons; family divorce or breakdown, parents whose faith is far removed from their lives, problems with other Christians or the shortcomings of the church. At other times it may just be the lure of the world and the pleasures that the world appears to hold.

I believe that what we do for the child not walking with God is the same as the one walking with the Lord; pray, bless and maintain good relationships. One of the saddest things is parents who fall out with their children because they have turned their backs on their faith.

God spoke powerfully to me from the title of a Joseph Garlington book Right or Reconciled. So often being right becomes the most important thing. However I believe maintaining relationship through reconciliation is far more important. We will never reach out to the lost whether in or out of our family by maintaining the moral and spiritual high ground that I am right and you are wrong.

If we have brought our children up in the faith, our grown up children know what is right and wrong. They do not need parents going on about their life style choices. They need parents who love and accept them whom they can talk to.

I am not referring to teenagers who still need a firm but loving hand and help with their choices till they have developed a mature judgement. Teenagers who yell at their parents ‘you don’t trust me’ are quite right. We should not trust our youngsters to make mature decisions at this point in their lives. It takes time and maturity to develop good judgement.

However even as adults our children may do things we do not consider appropriate such as living with partners or having sex outside marriage. Our children know this. What they need is our acceptance based on the fact that they and we both know what we think their choice.

In time these children of ours will return to their faith if we are diligent in prayer and loving in attitude. Even if we never see it ourselves, I firmly believe that we can all not only leave an inheritance of material possessions but also a heritage of Christian faith for our family members.