A GIFT WE ALL CAN GIVE

 AUGUST 18, 2022

1 Thessalonians 2:8 

We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.



Authentic relationships are built on love. When you love someone, you give.

God loves us, and in His love, He gives.

Acts 17 says that God “ he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. (Acts 17:25). Everything we have is a gift from Him. The breath you just took, the life you now have, the food you have eaten today (and will eat later), the roof over your head, the device you are using to read this devotional. It’s all a gift from above.

James 1 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17). John the Baptist said, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3:27). Everything we have is a gift from God. The most well-known verse in all of the Bible speaks of God’s loving generosity: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God loved us, and in His love, He gave us the  gift of His only Son to show us what life lived in God’s presence looks like and to die on the cross in our place, so that we could be forgiven with the outcome being the gift of eternal life. There is no greater love than this! “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Would you agree with me that sacrificial love is the highest form of love? That’s the kind of love God has shown to us.

I believe that’s the kind of love Jesus wants us to show in our relationships. We give of our time, our attention, even our possessions when needed, even our very selves to love others.

Think of it this way, any sacrificial love we show for one another on this earth is simply an echo of the kind of love God has for us in giving us His Son, and Jesus has for us in laying down His life for us. Today, Pray that God would fill your heart with that kind of love and then look for creative opportunities to give to meet the needs of people in your life and to bless them with God’s great love.

“So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” (1 Thessalonians 2:8)