Good and Perfect Gifts

Good and Perfect Gifts

James 1:13-18

"13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."

Who is this God that we worship? James tells us straight out that this God is not a God who throws things at us to trip us up or that wants to mess our lives up.

No this God is a God of good and perfect gifts – He has always been that way and will continue to be that way. We can count on Him. He gave us life – eternal life when we gave our life to Him. What more can we ask for?

It is easy during times of trials and troubles to think that God has forgotten or abandoned us. It is easy at times to forget that He loves us and is there for us.
That is where faith comes in – no matter how dark it may seem – we must continue on in faith – expecting Him to show up with exactly what we need exactly when we need it and not before.

It’s funny how God does things. In our Prayer study at Starbucks the last two weeks, we have discussed how we must continue to pray even when the situation we are praying about gets worse. It is then when we must demonstrate the most faith and patience with God. The temptation is to want to take it back from God and do it ourselves. That is not a temptation we want to give in to.

God is a giver of good and perfect gifts – may He rain gifts on you today!