Good And Perfect Gifts

Good and Perfect Gifts

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father. James 1:17

SOME PEOPLE HAVE A STRANGE NOTION of the good things in life. They see God as a depriver of what’s really fun, enjoyable, and extravagant. It comes from long-held theologies that rightly emphasize the importance of inner fulfillment, simple devotion, and avoiding luxury and self-indulgence that distracts the spirit. But it can also paint God as an austere Master who gives only what is needed and no more—like a cranky great uncle who gives only school supplies for a birthday or a trainer who is always pushing greens and grains and never offering a treat. Like the White Witch of Narnia, this God governs a landscape where it is always winter but never Christmas. It’s a distorted view of his nature and sends us looking elsewhere for anything more than basic rations. It doesn’t recognize the good and perfect gifts he has already given.

To a much larger degree than we might imagine, our future experience of God’s good gifts depends on our past appreciation of them. It isn’t as if he withholds his goodness out of pettiness, waiting impatiently for a “thank you.” The issue is a matter of our own hearts and what’s good for them. If we aren’t living in awareness of his bounty with gratitude for what he has done, we will take his future blessings and run with them, using them in self-centered and unhealthy ways (which is why theologies of deprivation have thrived). We will wrench them out of the relationship and handle them as our own assets. In other words, his good gifts might drive us further from his heart.

That’s the opposite of his purposes in giving them. There’s a right way to receive, and it begins with hearts thoroughly saturated, immersed, and overflowing with appreciation. The soil of a heart so conditioned is fertile ground for receiving God’s gifts—for praying and believing with confidence, for trusting in his goodness, for stewarding the increases he brings. Appreciative, joyful hearts are mature hearts that can handle God’s extravagance. Prepare yourself by cultivating yours. Pray, knowing that your Father loves to give good and perfect gifts from above.

God is all that is good, in my sight, and the goodness that everything has is his.