Vol. 18 No. 24 | June 20, 2016
One of the reasons I like Father’s Day so much (other than the gifts my wife and children give me) is that I (and other fathers) are honored and we do not have to do anything (well, we had to our part in becoming fathers) to be honored. I am treated extra special and reminded of how much I am loved and all I have to do is just be me. For me that means after I preached I went home, enjoyed a very nice meal, watched the U. S. Open, and game seven of the NBA finals. Although on this particular Father’s Day there were a few other things to do to prepare for a trip, mainly I just relaxed and enjoyed the day. It is a day to be reminded of how blessed I am.
When you consider your life, whether you are a father, a mother, a son or a daughter, you have the same opportunity. Consider these two passages from the book of Romans.
If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. (Romans 4:4-5, The Message)
Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.(Romans 4:4-5, The Message)
Did you get the message? The sheer gift from God to us is that He has made us fit for Him, set us right with Him. We did not have to do anything other than accept the gift. God did it all.Much of Romans 4 explains how Abraham was made right by God and how he did nothing to deserve it. He was not declared “right” because of what He did. Instead, “We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody.“ (Romans 4:17, The Message) It’s all God!
So what do you do with a gift? You accept it. You express your appreciation for it. You enjoy it. You tell others about it.
So what should you do with this gift from God? Accept it. Express your appreciation. Enjoy it. Tell others about it.
Tom
A Norvell Note © Copyright 2016. Tom Norvell All Rights Reserved.