Tag Archives: god gives good gifts

December 23, 2025 · 6:02 AM

Gifts For Tomorrow

In Matthew 2, we find the story of the wise men who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. I’ve always heard about how they represented Jesus’s roles: gold for His kingship, frankincense for His divinity and myrrh for his sacrificial death. That’s probably true, but practically they were for the next season. The family was going to be uprooted in the middle of the night in the next few days and have to live in a foreign country. These gifts more than likely provided for their needs while living in Egypt. Remember they were poor based on their offering in the Temple at Jesus’s dedication. God sent them provision ahead of their need.

A similar thing happened to the Israelites as they left Egypt in the middle of the night. After the tenth plague in Exodus 12, the Israelites were kicked out quickly which is why they were told to eat the Passover meal quickly with their sandals on and staff in hand. Having been slaves, they had little to no money to provide for their journey to the Promised Land to become an established nation in their own land. Verses 35-36 says, “And the people of Israel did as Moses had instructed; they asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold. The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth!” (NLT) God again sent their provision ahead of their need.

In Matthew 7:11 Jesus said, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” God is not reactive. He equips His people with gifts before their next season. He doesn’t let us walk into our next season empty handed. He provides gifts of relationships, resources and encouragement at just the right time. When I think of the wise men during Christmas, I think of how God gives before we know to ask, prepares us before we see and provides for us at just the right time with what we need. He is never late, never unprepared and He provides us with gifts before we know we need them. His pattern is that He gives good gifts for tomorrow.

Photo by Google Gemini

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June 15, 2023 · 5:30 AM

Expect Great Things

A few years ago, a video went viral of a man who was terrified to touch a teddy bear. They had blindfolded him and made him think he was on a show like Fear Factor. When he got the courage to put his hand in the plexiglass box, his fingers brushed up against the teddy bear. He squealed and yanked his hand out. For about two minutes he kept trying to reach in, but his fear was overwhelming. When he finally takes the blindfold off, he realizes it’s just a teddy bear, laughed, then grabbed it and spiked it on the ground. Everyone around him was laughing because he was too afraid to pick up a teddy bear.

It was easy for us to laugh at that because we weren’t the one blindfolded. Everyone else could see and knew he wasn’t in any danger. That’s kind of how Faith works. We’re blindfolded and can’t see. God is asking us to trust Him, but too often we are terrified. Our minds psych us out and we start freaking out. When we take a tiny step of faith and we experience something we aren’t anticipating, we squeal and pull back. All the while, God is saying, “Would you just trust me?”

In Matthew 9, two blind men were following Jesus calling out to Him for healing. Jesus asked if they believed He could heal blind eyes, and they said yes. Verse 29 says, “Then Jesus put His hands over their eyes and said, ‘You will have what your faith expects!’” (TPT) I believe He is still saying that to us today. Don’t let your mind expect the worse and create fear of what God is going to do. Expect God, who is good, to give you what you need. You don’t have to be terrified of what He has for you. Expect great things from Him because He gives good gifts.

Photo by Oscar Keys on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

The Goodness Of God

We usually take Thanksgiving as one day out of the year to be thankful for the things we have. I believe it’s important to be mindful and thankful daily for the goodness of God. I try to start each day with an attitude of gratitude. My first words of prayer each day are thanking God for another day. Then I thank Him for His goodness and His mercies. I need the daily reminder that God is good and He is for me. He gives us good things, and He doesn’t withhold good things from us as believers. Being thankful daily for His goodness is one way to count my blessings. Being mindful of His goodness helps me to keep perspective on who He is and who my supplier is. All that we have comes from Him and belongs to Him. The more we appreciate the goodness of God, the more of it we will see.

Here are some Bible verses on the goodness of God.

1. Every gift God freely gives us is good and perfect, streaming down from the Father of lights, who shines from the heavens with no hidden shadow or darkness and is never subject to change.

James (Jacob) 1:17 TPT

2. The Lord is our protector and glorious king, blessing us with kindness and honor. He does not refuse any good thing to those who do what is right.

Psalm 84:11 GNT

3. Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

Psalms 103:1-5 NLT

4. How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world.

Psalms 31:19 NLT

5. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalms 23:6 NLT

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

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November 26, 2020 · 5:30 AM

The Little Things

A while back, there was a concert my wife and I wanted to go to. On the day the tickets went on sale, I had two phones, an iPad and a laptop out trying to get tickets. After sitting in their digital waiting room for an hour, a message popped up saying they were sold out. As we got closer to the concert date I began looking at all the resale sites, but the ticket prices were outrageous. As we were driving down the road discussing it, my wife closed her eyes and said, “Lord, it would be awesome if you could give us free tickets to this concert. Amen.” I laughed internally and thought, “No one is going to give up their tickets, but ok God.” The day before the concert she got a message offering her free tickets to the concert. We were both blown away.

In 2 Kings 6, Elisha was the prophet of Israel, and the group of prophets who were with him decided the place where they were staying was too small. They wanted to build a bigger place, but Elisha didn’t think they needed to. After begging him to come, they went to the river to cut down trees to build a bigger place. Verse 5 says, “But as one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell into the river. ‘Oh, sir!’ he cried. ‘It was a borrowed ax!’” (NLT) Elisha had him point to the place where the ax head went into the water. He then threw in a stick and the ax head floated to the surface. The man grabbed it and went back to work.

Both stories remind me that God is concerned about the little things in our lives. Going to the concert didn’t change our lives, but God knew it was something we would appreciate. Sometimes we forget that like a parent, God just wants to bless His kids. We don’t need to feel like we’re bothering Him with the little things. He’s just as able to take care of the “little” requests in our lives as the “big” ones. God simply wants to be involved in our day to day lives instead of being our spiritual 9-1-1 call. He’s looking for relationship with us. If we’re going to have one with Him, then we need to let Him into all areas of our lives including the little ones.

Photo by Yassin Mohammadi on Unsplash

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