SCRIPTURE: Matthew 21:27d (TM)
You'll get everything you
have coming to you, a personal gift.
STORY:
One
morning R.C. Chapman, a devout Christian, was asked how he was feeling.
"I'm burdened this morning!" was his reply. But his happy countenance
contradicted his words. So the questioner exclaimed in surprise, "Are you
really burdened, Mr. Chapman?" "Yes, but it's a wonderful
burden--it's an overabundance of blessings for which I cannot find enough time
or words to express my gratitude!" Seeing the puzzled look on the face of
his friend, Chapman added with a smile, "I am referring to Psalm 68:19,
which fully describes my condition. In that verse the Father in heaven reminds
us that He 'daily loads us with benefits.'"
OBSERVATION:
The larger context of the Matthew
scripture has Jesus rebuking Peter about Peter’s negative response to the soon
to be unfolding circumstances of Jesus’ final days on earth. I’ve always been
captivated by the paraphrase of The Message: “You’ll get everything you have
coming to you…” to which I normally respond: “God, I hope not!” Even further is
the fact that God was going to make it a “personal gift”… really? Boy would I
be in trouble. How about you?
If we got what we deserved we
would all be in trouble… big trouble… take our breath away kind of trouble…
stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off trouble.
Praise be to God that God
doesn’t deliver what we deserve, but what he decides to give. We just need to
stop this maddening Protestant work ethics thinking. We cannot earn anything
from God no matter how hard we work. We don’t deserve anything. We haven’t
earned diddly squat no matter how good we think we have been.
God’s personal gift to us is
grace, pure and simple... undeserved, unwarranted, and unexpected. God chooses
to bless us simply because he chooses to bless us… end of story. Or, is it the
beginning of the story… his story and our spiritual walk with him. God loves us
into being what he has designed us to be. Oh, we can fight it, but why would
we? We would only be like Don Quixote with drawn sword fighting the windmills
of our existence.
Isn’t it better just to give
in and allow God to take over? Life sure works better when we follow the
operating instructions for living. When we do we discover what R.C. Chapman
discovered… that God “daily loads us with benefits.” For that we are thankful, the
old turkey day celebration takes on a how lot of meaning and purpose.
PRAYER:
Well, God the day of
Thanksgiving, or should it be Thanks-living, is fast approaching – much quicker
that we would like, but here it comes ready or not. Disturb us out of our
comfort zones. Bring us to a new understanding of what this “blessings from
Heaven” stuff is all about. Help us understand there truly is a reason for the
daily loading of your benefits… and it is more than just to make us feel good…
or special… or get us into heaven… help us to take it to the next level!
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