Free Gifts From God
by Peter Brokaar
One simple truth stands out to me in today’s Bible verse: grace is given. It isn’t earned, deserved or bought. It is given. Many people have tried to seek the grace of God in other ways, and not as a gift coming to us through Jesus Christ.
As believers we’ve inherited eternal life as a free gift which comes out of the richness of the grace of God. Yet most of us (or could it perhaps be all of us?) at times seek to receive just a little bit more grace in our own way. And guess what - it doesn’t work!
We can easily end up frustrated with God, angry, feeling rejected and unloved. We might feel like this: “Doesn’t He see how hard we try? Isn’t He aware of how much effort we put in? Is He ignorant of the sacrifices we’re giving? God, notice me!”
Yet God always sees us, and forever longs to give us more of His grace, but He only gives it when it can come to us freely, at no cost to us. His good gifts come to us through His Son Jesus, and we receive them through the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of God.
Do you remember Cain and Abel? Both brought sacrifices, but only one was accepted. What did God say to Cain? ‘If you do well, will you not be accepted?’ God longs to lavish His love on us and give us more of His grace. And He has an incredibly rich inheritance for all His children. But He wants us to know the primary qualification for receiving is ‘believing’. It’s trusting we can’t earn anything, but that He gives us all things for free, through His Son Jesus.
God’s so kind, so forgiving, so loving, so free with His giving! But He’s utterly inflexible on this one point - it all has to flow from His grace. He will never let us earn anything!
May we today find God’s help to ‘do well and be accepted’, not by trying harder, or paying some kind of spiritual price, but by allowing God to freely give us more of His grace!
Peter Brokaar is Director of Ellel Ministries Scotland and has been there together with his wife Liz since 2005. They have 3 kids, all born in Scotland! In his free time he likes reading, cooking, running and surfing. Being at Ellel Scotland has given him the privilege of getting to know God deeper and sharing that joy with many others.
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