Weekly Devotionals

February 6, 2012

 

What Do You Say When Given a Gift?

The simple Gospel: A conversation with Elizabeth Rice Handford

 

            As I've told you before, Walt and I work with patients of Interim Home HealthCare.  Last week we got a referral for a patient which said, "She has no spiritual support and would welcome a visit."  When I went to the home, I found our patient tired and discouraged.  She was very sick, and nothing seemed to be helping.

            She was alert and welcoming, but found it hard to talk, so I said, "Why don't you let me tell you the whole Gospel story about how much God loves you, just as if you'd never heard it before?"

            She nodded eagerly.

            So I said, "Before God made you, before He even made the world, He thought about you. He wanted to show you how much He loves you, and share all the treasures of Heaven with you.

            "But He didn't want to force you to love Him.  He wanted you to choose to love Him.  And that's where the problem is, for you and me both, because we wanted to do our own thing; we wanted our own way."

            This dear woman listened intently, and nodded her head in agreement.  "Yes, I've wanted my own way."

            "Of course, we didn't surprise God.  He knew we would make the wrong choice.  But now He had a real problem.  How could He be friends with us when we're so sinful and He's so holy?  He couldn't just ignore our sin.  You see, we earned death because of our sin. We couldn't make up for it by being good, or paying money to someone, or just being sorry about it.  We would still be under the sentence of death.

            "So God and His Beloved Son Jesus made a wonderful, wonderful plan.  Jesus would come to earth as a little baby.   He'd grow up, and face every temptation all the rest of us have faced, but He'd do it without sinning.  Then He would die on the cross and pay the debt of our sin.  He would trade places with us.  He would pay for our sin, and He would give us His holiness!   It's a gift He wants to give us.

            "When somebody offers you a gift, you don't say, ‘How much do I owe you?'  What do you do?"

            With tears running down her face, she lifted both arms toward me eagerly and said, "You say ‘Thank you!'"

            And that's what we say, too.  "Thank you, thank you, dear Jesus, for giving us the precious gift of salvation!"*

 

 

*If you're interested, there are many Scriptures in the Bible that explain this. You might start with several verses in the book of Romans, beginning with Romans chapter 3, verse 23; then 6:23; 5:8; and 10:9,10.