Unclaimed gifts

Christmas season is upon us! Moms everywhere are instructing their kids to make of a list of what they want for Christmas. I remember my girls giving me a list and as their mom, I tried my best to get most of the things they wanted. It never fails though, once Christmas comes, there is inevitably something they wanted that was left off the list. Maybe it was an oversight, but you can see the disappointment in their face.

I wonder just how many gifts we, as Christians leave up in heaven. Never to be received and unwrapped?

Yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

James 4:2b

The Bible tells us that God only knows how to give good gifts. How many blessings have we missed out on simply because we did not ask Him? How many good gifts did God want to pour out on us if all we would do is ask? I am not suggesting that when you pray, you recite your "give me" list, or even to ask for things that He could not approve of. I am talking about the desires of our hearts. There are so many verses that God instructs us to ask and it will be given. Just as I want to give my kids the desires of their hearts, God wants to do the same. God knows the things on your list, whether we ask Him or not. But by asking Him, you are showing your complete dependence on Him. I don't know about you, but I don't want to leave any of my gifts unclaimed or unwrapped. I am like a small child when it comes to the gifts of God, I want them all!

Ask, and it shall be given you.

Matthew 7:7

What is your impossible?

While reading through Luke, I came across this verse and it jumped off the page!

For with God nothing shall be impossible. Luke 1:37

This was a response to Mary who had just been told that she was going to conceive a child. She was wondering how that was going to happen since she was a virgin. Mary, like us, questioned God based on what she could see. On her circumstances. On her own wisdom. On how much she could understand. To Mary, conceiving a child without knowing a man was impossible.

We all have impossibles in our lives. The circumstances in our lives that seem, well, impossible. The things that we view that has gone beyond any hope of repair. We look at these things with no hope and that can leave us in a state of despair. The problem with that is we don't understand when God tells us nothing means NOTHING. What we are doing is putting limits on what God can do - oh, we have intellect knowledge that He can do all things, but deep down in our hearts, we still doubt. We doubt because we don't understand how He can fix it. Some things humanly speaking are impossible. We all have limited wisdom and we just have to get to the point where we have to look to God to do the impossible. To have faith that He will do the impossible.

What is your impossible?