Gift

*GIFT - also see GRACE, JESUS, DIVINE, SALVATION

The gift [of Jesus] was promised to us since the Fall, and in the fullness of time Jesus Christ was born. My question is: Have you opened this gift? Have you appreciated this Savior? Even though he is indescribable and beyond words, you have received sufficient revelation about him to save you from your sins. As Jesus told that Samaritan woman, "If you knew the gift of God . . . you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." He alone will deliver you from all anxieties, fear, hopelessness, hell and death. Jesus is the pearl of great price, the eternal Son of God. This one is the treasure hidden from the eyes of all who are not chosen of God. (http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/One_Divine_Gift_for_All.html)

Each circumstance [in your life] is a gift, and in each experience is hidden treasure. (Conversations, p33) For example, although I am intraverted, this is a gift that allows me to contemplate the spiritual. (Randy)

For belief in God produces belief in God's greatest gift - unconditonal love - and God's greatest promise - unlimited potential. (Conversations, p44)

Everything that comes our way must be accepted as a gift from God. (Father Gregory Zanoni, Syr Papers 4/27/96)

Grace is an unmerited gift.

So, when God gives you spiritual comfort, receive it gratefully, but know it to be a gift from God, not something you deserve. When you no longer feel the comfort of God's presence, do not despair right away. With humility and patience, wait for the heavenly visit. All offer little help when I seem to be abandoned by grace and left in my own poverty. When that happens, there is no better remedy than patience and submission to God's will. A person who is not trained by some trial for God is not worthy of lofty contemplation. Usually temptation is a sign of comfort to follow: "He who overcomes, shall eat of the tree of life." and divine comfort gives us the strength to bear up under adversity. Temptation then follows, lest we become proud of our goodness. (Imitation, Book2, Ch9)

God is both within and without (by thousands of gifts). Our gifts/talents (even children) are on loan to us. (Tozer)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8-9)

A relationship with God is a gift. But a gift must be received. "... to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). Don't be too proud to admit that you need God's new life within you. (Promise Keepers Net)

The gift of life is God's gift to us, what we do with our life is our gift to God. (Book for Black Men ???)

Why are we so hard-headed about realizing "God loves us as we are"? Because life can bruise us so significantly (ie. as w/ Bonnie?), or because we feel guilty and don't forgive ourselves and therefore hard to accept that God does. Suffering OPENS us up to the spirit and with prayer and scripture we can also CONNECT just as branches to the vine and also by appreciating how much God has really given us (ie. freewill, co-creators). We need to EXPAND our consciousness to be aware of our CONNECTEDNESS to God and others in order to strive to be who we are meant to be. We need to slow down our pace, pay attention to rhythms and changes in our lifes, get into an environment of gardens, water, and mountain tops, music, and arts. We need to respect uplifting and life giving forces and to realize the restrictiveness of the "I am completely right and you are completely wrong" thinking/attitudes. (Learning to Love Yourself is the Greatest Gift of All, Dr. Terry O'Brien, SRC, 9/26/96)