Isaiah 43:4 Archives - Seeking God with Jaime Wiebel

Today Is A Gift

Jaime Wiebel — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 05:15:00 +0000

It’s that time again. Making our list and telling everyone all of the things in our lives, we are thankful for. What a great exercise in gratitude and appreciation. Last year my kids and I made a turkey out of a shoe box. Through a hole in the top, we deposited tiny notes of things we were thankful for throughout the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

With Thanksgiving getting busy, we did not get our fat little turkey opened up so we put it up to open this year. I am excited to look through it. I am excited to see how we have changed. I am excited to see how God has blessed our family throughout this past year.

I love the reminder from James 1:17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

We were freely given these good and perfect gifts. They are unearned and undeserved.

Often times we go down our list: We are thankful for our family, our kids, our spouses, our health, our jobs, our homes. Sometimes we become like someone at the Grammies receiving an award. I want to Thank God for my mom and dad and first-grade teacher and … we rattle off our list… and most of all I am thankful for God.

Do not get me wrong, I am sure that you are very sincere and grateful for your list.

Today, however, I want you to pause for a minute because sometimes by Friday morning we are already complaining about the clerk at the checkout line.

So pause… and… breathe. Close your eyes if you have to. This is not a race to the finish.

Keep breathing. Sit in the stillness of God. This too is a gift and we forget to take the time to just be still.

We rush through this season and forget to breathe.

Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Genesis 2:7

The breath that is slowly going in and out of your lungs is a gift.

When God reached down from Heaven, scooped up the dirt to form man, He breathed into him the very first gift of breath and he became a living creature.

I always imagine this scene with God’s magnificent and mighty hands slowly scooping up just the right dirt and thoughtfully crafting and carving the first man. Gently pushing the hair out of his eyes.

After He had created Him, taking a deep breath and gently breathing life into this new being. Then looking at him lovingly, as a new father looks at his first-born child, boldly and proudly proclaiming this is very good.

If you go back and recount the creation story from Genesis every day God was creating something new, He was looking at His creation and saying that it was good. Look around today at God’s creation, He Himself has declared it good and it is His gift to you.

Remember James 1:17. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father.

This story would not be complete without the gift of salvation. The gift of God’s grace.

Leaving His heavenly home. Coming to this lowly place and giving His life. Remember the word for gift means given freely. An unearned, undeserved gift. That is what Christ gave us on the cross.

He chose through His grace and mercy to love us… a gift

He chooses to give us life… a gift

He chose to send His one and only Son… a gift

He chose to die so we might live… a gift

Now this is where we respond. We can take this gift or leave it. We can choose to accept it or not. We can go toward Christ in our life or walk away.

If you already have Christ in your life, He offered this gift to you. Although we may be quick to think we chose this gift, remember God offered the perfect gift of the cross to you.

God tells His people in Isaiah 43:4, “Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.”

Other people were given in your place. Other people were given in exchange for you.

You have the gift of salvation because He chose you because He loves you and you are precious to Him.

What a gift! Now that is a reason to have a thankful heart.

We should not miss a single day forgetting and being thankful to our God because He chose us.

Thank you Heavenly Father for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to praise you and show our gratitude for all the good and perfect gifts that only come from you. Thank you for choosing us to be your people. Thank you for everything including the breath of life that you continue to give us. I do not want to miss a day remembering all that I have and am because of who you are. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Previous Posts you may enjoy:

Grace and Mercy

Come As You Are

You Are Uniquely You

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Dear Younger Me

Jaime Wiebel — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 06:46:00 +0000

As I was sitting on my grandma’s front porch swing, one of our favorite places to talk, we were recalling the lives of David and Solomon.

David and Solomon were kings. David was the shepherd boy, who was the anointed king chosen by God. God had sought out a man after his own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) and chose David. Solomon was his wise son and heir to the throne. Although this sounds like a pretty good deal for both of them, they faced many hardships and trials in their lives.

As we were talking about their lives my grandma said to me, “You know I am pretty old. You know my birthday is next month. Do you know how old I am going to be?” I said, “Eighty, let’s go with eighty.”

One thing I don’t like facing is my grandma getting older. My grandma has been my best friend, my confidant, she is a prayer warrior and the person whom I can talk to endlessly about the Word of God. She has been an amazing source of wise council.

Jokingly, I said to her, “It is not like you have somewhere to be.” We both laughed, and she said, “At least in heaven I won’t have to scrub floors and clean out my cabinets.”

My grandma has passed along a lot of wise words during my life. As I thought about her life and how fleeting it must sometimes seem. I thought about my life, the life of King David’s and the life of his son Solomon.

Often times, as we grow older, we say, “Oh, if I only knew then what I know now.”

So what would I say to the younger version of me?

First off, I would tell her that someday she will be the wife of an amazing, tall, dark and handsome godly man. She will be the mother of three beautiful children who will love her endlessly.

I would tell her that her adventuresome spirit will take her to many amazing places and to remember to love the people while she is there.

I would tell her that she will make many mistakes along the way and for that carry lots of guilt and shame for many years.

I would say that she will have her heart broken more times than she can count and face trials that will seem to never end.

I would want her to know that she will feel a heartache in losing children that will seem incomprehensible.

I would want her to know that life is but a vapor and that always following her own desires is like chasing the wind. No man, no location, no thing will deliver what God alone can give her.

True happiness will come from a God that has redeemed her and paid a ransom for her because she is precious to Him and because HE loves her.

Above all of life’s ups and downs, I would want her to know that in her dwells a God that will never let her go. No matter how far she runs, He will chase after her because He has called her His own. He is a God that has forgiven her and she will need to believe and trust that for herself so she can, in turn, forgive herself.

He will be her hope and her refuge when there seems like no way out. He will be her guiding light when all else seems dark. He will cover her in the cleft of the rock when she is scared. He will be her peace that surpasses all her understanding.

One day, young lady (that is what I will call her because I am older than her) you will look back at all of this and realize no matter how hard it was or how great it may have seemed, it was nothing without God. For in Him, you will find your true purpose, your true calling, your true hope.

I will tell her that I love her because she has a beautiful heart and to treat it well because one day we would give it ALL to our Lord and then our life will never be the same.

And the two of us would hug because we would be crying our eyes out and I would send her on her way to becoming the person that God has made her today. Truly blessed in every way.

So if you had the chance to tell yourself what you know now, what would you want your younger self to know?

Join in the discussion below and Share comments and encourage others in their journeys.

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