By Racheeta Nayak.
What can I give my Heavenly Father when all that I have is His?
Deuteronomy 10:14
“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
He says he’s my Father, does this make me his child?
2 Corinthians 6: 18
I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Often we see God only as the Sovereign ruler of our lives; we talk to him so formally that we forget he is Our Father.
Growing up without a father, God has been the only Father I knew . One night I recall being filled with so much gratitude for him I couldn’t stop but sob uncontrollably. Grace means so much to a person who knows he or she is not worth saving.
I usually express my love through cooking and that night I asked God to be my guest so that I could cook his favourite meal . I know this is anthropomorphism but I couldn’t suppress the desire to spend time with the one who loved me first. In just few seconds, I felt something like the spirits gently whisper, reminding me of this verse in the bible,
Mathew 25 : 35-36
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Verse 40
“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
When we love someone, GIVING becomes something we enjoy.
Giving doesn’t necessarily mean money. I feel time is the most valuable gift you can give anybody. I remember watching a video of a homeless woman sitting on a sidewalk of a busy street looking lost. A man approaches and asks her how he could help her and she responds to him saying, "I don’t need money. I just need someone to listen to me, someone to remind me that I EXIST." This video has had a huge impact on me changing the way I treat people.
God has loved us so much that he GAVE himself up for us. We cannot repay him.
Ephesians 5 :12
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We should pray that God uses every bit of us for his glory because a life submitted to him is not bondage but freedom.
Matthew 6 : 19 -21
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The topic of this Sermon thought is inspired by the song 'What can I give him' by the famous song writer Christina .G. Rossetti in the year 1905.
What can I give him , poor as I am ?
If I were a shepherd , I would bring a lamb ;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part ;
Yet what can I give him
Give him my heart.