The Greatest Gift

Did you ever want something so much you could taste it? Did you ever pray for it, hope for it, even beg and weep for it? And when things didn’t turn out the way you wanted, you were so disappointed, perhaps even angry with God?  I have. A few times. And when that moment came when I realized my prayers were not going to be answered, at least not in the way I wanted, there also came the grace to deal with it.

But it brought to the forefront something else, too: my sense of entitlement. I think sometimes we Christians can fall into an “entitlement” mentality. Just because we are God’s, we sometimes believe He is obliged to answer our prayers in just the manner we want. It’s coming to us. Right? After all, we’ve been walking in faith these many years, doing things His way. Surely we can expect our prayers to be answered now and then.  But what we forget, what I forget, is that God is not obligated to do anything more for us. He already did it all by sending his son, Jesus, to the cross to pay for your sins and mine. And this act has given us the greatest gift of all, peace with God and a hope and a future.

During this Easter season, as I thought about the magnitude of what He did for me, everything in my life, all of its problems, its hurts, its disappointments, paled in comparison.  If God never does another thing for me, I’d have no right to complain. When I reflect on this great gift of peace with God, forgiveness of my sins, and the hope of eternal life, I’m amazed all over again by God’s great love. It’s this kind of loving God that I can trust with my future, to know what is best, even when I don’t understand what He is doing. And He is the kind of loving God you can trust as well.

Until next week,

Sylvia