What good gifts do you have? (Health, Wealth, Beauty, Home, Friendship, Family, Marriage, Children, Work, Passions, Natural Talent, Strengths, etc. etc.) Think about them for a moment. If you have a minute right now, make a list of them somewhere. Look them over; assess their worth – see if you can!
Now. With this incredible list of gifts in my hand, how can it be that I am constantly falling back into a mindset of for richer & for poorer?! What I mean is this:
Whatever great gift I have, I often find myself vacillating between thinking:
“This gift is not that great; others ought to appreciate me and even pity me because they have it richer (better or easier) than me! Poor me.”
And thinking:
“This gift is so great; others ought to think everything I have and do and am is also great because they have it poorer than me (I’ve earned it)! Rich me.”
Instead. May we settle just quietly, gratefully, humbly into a way of thinking that sounds more like, “The gifts that I have are the just-right amount of great for me; others ought to be increasingly blessed by them! For Christ’s sake.”
Praying:
God, we are grateful for the gifts You’ve given us because You chose them for us and gave them to us out of Your generosity. Keep us from the stealthy treachery of for richer & for poorer in our minds and hearts. Help us to steward our gifts in ways that allow You to bring more and more good into the lives of others through our lives.
We pray this proverb (30:8-9) into our hearts:
give us neither poverty nor riches,
but give us only our daily bread.
Otherwise, we may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or we may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of our God.
Amen.