Are gifts accumulating under your tree? Are you eager to open them? Don’t hurry through these last days of Advent without remembering the rest of God’s “I WILL” promises.
What was your favorite Christmas gift when you were a child? A bike? A dollhouse? A video game? I bet that a heavy stack of math textbooks wasn’t top on your wish list, but, when he was in high school, that is what my husband Gene asked for each year from his father. Every November, Gene would give his dad a list of titles of math and chemistry texts that he wanted for Christmas, and every year his father would select the books that he could afford. Often, Dad bought his son the entire list, a gift purchased at great financial sacrifice given his limited income.
Yesterday we saw how God loves to give good gifts to his children too. In Isaiah 44:3, the Lord says: “I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.”
Our Father gives from the depth of his heart, and he offers his very self, his own Holy Spirit, to dwell within us. That gift did not come without severe sacrifice. It required the death of his own Son. In John 15:26, Jesus explained that he would have to die in order for the Spirit to come: “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.”
Jesus sacrificed that you and I might have the Spirit of truth dwell within us. What are you willing to sacrifice this season so that others might know about Jesus?
