Thursday, November 13, 2014

God's Indescribable Gifts


  Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!  2Co 9:15

As I have thought about the idea of thanksgiving the last weeks, this verse just kept coming to mind. Paul says that God's gift is indescribable, unspeakable

Gods greatest gift is beyond description.The ultimate gift from God is Jesus. Paul was overcome with thanksgiving, and just did not have words to communicate the revelation that he had.

I have noticed that many of Gods gifts are described as beyond our ability to describe or understand.

Php_4:7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

1Pe_1:8  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Eph_2:7  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Rom_11:33  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Eph 1:6-8  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

Eph_3:10  so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Rom 11:33  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Eph 3:19  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Eph 3:20  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

2Pe 1:4  by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises,

These words show that the gifts of God are more than we can understand.

1Co 2:9  But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"

BUT

1Co 2:10  these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

 
God wants us to know the unknowable. He wants us to comprehend the incomprehensible. He wants us to understand things that are beyond understanding, To search out the unsearchable.

 Paul expressed this as he prayed for the Ephesians

  that God  would give them the spirit of wisdom and of revelation…“that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might. Eph 1:17-19 

Paul clearly expected that God would reveal to them things that were above their human understanding. These things are only understood by revelation of the spirit.

And, there is always more to learn and experience, much more. That is the attitude Paul expressed.

Php 3:14  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

He was always pressing on, never satisfied with where he was.

Until the very end of Pauls life, he never stopped pursuing. His very last letter which he wrote in prison when he knew that he was about to die, to be martyred. He wrote to his faithful spiritual son Timothy.
 
2Ti 4:6-9  For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day. Do your best to come to me soon.

But look at what Paul tells him next.
2Ti 4:13  When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

Why the books and parchments? Because there was more to learn, more to accomplish.

 As we talk in this season about giving thanks, we are mindful that we are commanded to give thanks. I believe that gratitude is like joy, it is a decision we make. We put off grumbling and complaining and put on thankfulness. We choose to thank God in every circumstance.

I also believe that the more we know of the magnificent gifts of God, the more thankful we will naturally be.

 

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