OUR DAILY BREAD : IMPERFECT GIFTS

[cimi]

April 17
Thursday


IMPERFECT GIFTS

READ:
James 1:2-18
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Every good gift and
every perfect gift is
from above, and comes
down from the Father
of lights.
__James 1:17
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When I was a child, I wondered why I had to thank God for food I didn't want to eat. In my immature mind, gratitude was a response to receiving something I wanted--like a hamburger and French fries, not asparagus. so why did I have to be thankful for something I didn't want?

In the human realm, my thinking was logical. Not everything people give us is for our good. and of course not everything we want is good.

But the situation with God is different. As Christ reminded us, loving parents do not give their children a stone rather than bread, a snake instead of a fish. And God is far more loving than our earthly parents (Matt. 7:9-11).

This doesn't mean that God's children can expect a pain-free, stress-free life James tells us not only that every good gift comes from our heavenly Father (1:7), but also that we are to "count it all joy" when we "fall into various trials." The testing of our "faith produces patience," and the work of patience makes us "perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (vv.2-4).

Even when we receive something that doesn't seem good, we can be grateful because we know there is more to it that we can see. What seems like an imperfect gift may be the means by which God perfects us. __Julie Ackerman Link
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``````````````````````FOR FURTHER STUDY`````````````````````

```````How can terrible things ever be good? Does our loving`````````
````````God "give" us pain? Read Why Would A Good God```````````
```````Allow Suffering? at www.discoveryseries.org/q0106```````````
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A trial may be God's good gift in disguise.

****************Today's Bible Reading __ James 1:2-18************

2 My brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into various
trials, 3 knowing that the
testing of your faith produces
patience. 4 But let patience
have its perfect work, that
you may be perfect and
complete, lacking nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom,
let him ask of God, who
gives to all liberally and
without reproach, and it will
be given to him. 6 But let him
ask in faith, with no doubting,
for he who doubts is like a
wave of the sea driven and
tossed by the wind. 7 For let
not that man suppose that he
will receive anything from
the Lord; 8 he is a double-
minded man, unstable in all
his ways....

12 Blessed is the man who
endures temptation; for when
he has been approved, he will
receive the crown of life
which the Lord has promised
to those who love Him.

13 Let no one say when he is
tempted, "I am tempted by
God"; for God cannot be
tempted by evil, nor does He
Himself tempt anyone. 14 But
each on is tempted when he
is drawn away by his own
desires and enticed. 15 Then,
when desire has conceived, it
gives birth to sin; and sin,
when it is full-grown, brings
forth death.

16 Do not be decieved, my
beloved brethren. 17 every
good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and comes
down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no
variation or shadow of
turning. 18 Of His own will
He brought us forth by the
word of truth, that we might
be a kind of firstfruits of
His creatures.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

"In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:18). The basis for a thankful heart in all
circumstances is the assurance that God is in sovereign control
(Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:28). __Dennis Fisher