Morning By Morning #141

…the wonder of your great love.

Psalm 17:7

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

When our gifts are truly given from the heart, we have given well, yet most often we fail at this. This is never true of our Master and Lord, however, for His gifts are always performed with the love of His heart. He never sends us cold meat and mere scraps of food from His table of luxury, but dips our every morsel in His own dish and seasons each portion with the spices of His fragrant affection. When He places the golden expressions of His grace in our hands, He accompanies the gift with such a warm squeeze of our hand that the manner in which He gives is as precious to us as the gift itself.

He enters our house as He carries out His acts of kindness, but He does not enter as some rich unfriendly guest entering a poor man’s lowly cottage. No, He sits by our side, never looking down on our poverty or criticizing our weaknesses.

Beloved, He smiles as He speaks! What golden words flow from His gracious lips! What affectionate embraces He gives us! If He only had a penny to give, the way He gives it would make it as gold. Yet from His abundance His valuable gifts sit in a golden basket beside His beautiful carriage. And it is impossible to doubt the sincerity of His charity, for the emblem of His heart, bleeding for us, is stamped upon each and every gift. “God…gives generously to all without finding fault” (James 1:5). There is not one hint we are a burden to Him, not one cold glance for His poor beneficiaries. He rejoices in His mercies and holds us tightly to Himself as He pours out His life for us.

There is a fragrance to His exquisite perfume that nothing but His heart could produce and a sweetness to His honeycomb that could never exist unless the very essence of His soul’s affection were mixed with it.

Oh, the remarkable communion only His heart can produce! May we continually taste and know the blessedness of it!

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

What a generous example of giving the Lord God has exhibited by giving us His son! “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). We are indeed commanded to follow His example, for Jesus said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15).

The apostle Paul told us, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (2 Cor. 9:6 – 11).

Dear one, try it yourself! “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8).