Would You Trade What God Has Given You For Anything Else You Want?

Blog Series: Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble

It is said that you cannot break the laws of God. You can only break yourself against them when you violate them. In this series we are looking at some of the simple and clear “laws of God” – that is to say, “biblical principles” –  that we must follow if we do not want to bring very negative cause-effect consequences into our lives.

Gaining happiness through gratefulness    

It is easy to get preoccupied with the wants and desires we have that God has not met and lose sight of the things He has given us; like a child who is ungrateful to his parents because he did not get the Christmas present he wanted, rather than being grateful for food, clothing, shelter, education, medical attention, life-opportunity and familial love that he has been given.

A key to entering into the love-relationship God offers us is to cultivate gratitude for what God has given us, rather than being ungrateful for what He hasn’t.

Here is a short list of things God has given to His children that we often take for granted. But just imagine that God were to give you that something you might most want from Him right now, but in return, take away any one of these other things. How calamitous that would be. It helps put into perspective the majesty of God’s benevolent intentions toward us. I’ve included in this list the gift, the corresponding Scripture, and an insightful quote that helps drive the truth home for me.

Gifts from God to be grateful for:

1. God offers us His love. 

Scripture: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” 1 John 3:1

Quote: “We are born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end.” Benjamin Disraeli

2. God offers us His forgiveness.

Scripture: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12

Quote: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” C. S. Lewis

3. We are born again, spiritually.

Scripture: “You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable.” 1 Peter 1:23

Quote: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – whether they stand at the heights of political power or the depths of prison confinement. I have been in both spots. And no matter where a person is, God will meet him or her there with an invitation to forgiveness and new life.” Chuck Colson

4. We will live forever in paradise.

Scripture: “He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain…” Revelation 21:4

Quote: “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C. S. Lewis

5. We are given the dignity of causality.

Scripture: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

Quote: “’God,’ said Pascal, ‘instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality.’ But not only prayer; whenever we act at all He lends us that dignity. It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so.

For He seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.  This is how (no light matter) God makes something—indeed, makes gods—out of nothing.” C.S. Lewis

6. We receive disproportionate eternal reward for things suffered in this life.

Scripture: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18

Quote: “On the day of the Lord – the day that God makes everything right, the day that everything sad becomes untrue – on that day the same thing will happen to your own hurts and sadness. You will find that the worst things that ever happened to you will in the end only enhance your eternal delight. On that day, all of it will be turned inside out and you will know joy beyond the walls of the world. The joy of your glory will be that much greater for every scar you bear.”  Timothy Keller

7. We will share in God’s glory.

Scripture: “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:17

Quote: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship…   There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” C. S. Lewis

Conclusion

Take a moment and imagine that God would give you the one thing you most want in life right now, but in return, would take away the things in this list. See how immeasurably lopsided that would be? See how short-sighted that would be? See how vastly more God has given you compared to what He has not given you?

Plus, anything He has not given you, He has done so for your ultimate good (Romans 8:18).

Cultivating our awareness of what God has already irrevocably given us compared to anything He has not given us helps us grow up, spiritually, and begin to enter into the love relationship He wants with us.

As Bible teacher Alexander McLaren once wrote, “If we lived under the constant benediction of the deepest truth of the universe – God is love – our peace would be full.”

The first article in this series, Happiness: King Solomon’s Conclusion was posted last week. Join us next week for What Does Daily Holiness Look Like.

The entire “Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble” series is in the archives, beginning with the post on July 26, 2022.

If you know anyone who you think might enjoy this blog, please forward this post to them and encourage them to go to my web site (www.maxanders.com) and sign up for the free video, “Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You”, available there on the home page. This will put them on my regular mailing list to receive my weekly blog.