The Greatest Gift

“The Greatest Gift’

By Zach Wood

Isaiah 53:5 NIV

But he was bruised for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all enjoying receiving gifts in life, don’t we?  We enjoy getting gifts when our birthday comes around each year.  We enjoy getting gifts when Christmas rolls around as well.  Sometimes, we receive gifts from other people when we least expect them to come.  Out of nowhere, a mysterious wad of cash shows up in an envelope when we need it most.  There are other times when an unexpected check shows up in our mailbox. 

There are so many different times through the year when friends or family doing something totally unexpected and surprise us in some way and that usually leave us speechless and with tears in our eyes while emotions surge through our body.  It is really cool when people do such incredible things for us and surprise us in ways we never thought they would.  Why do people do these things?  Because they love us.  We have people who love us and look forward to doing things for us because they want to see us react and how overwhelmed we’ll become.

It is amazing to think about how much our friends and family truly love us and want to do amazing things for us.  Why it is truly great to be overcome and overwhelmed with emotion and excitement when someone does something for us, how often are we truly overcome and overwhelmed when we consider what God did for us through Jesus Christ?  God gave us the most amazing and greatest gift we could ever receive through salvation in Jesus.  And yet, honestly, so often we become so much more excited about earthly gifts and less excited when we consider what Christ did for us.

How does it make you feel when you think of what Christ did for you?  Do you feel a deep sense of gratitude and does it bring you to your knees in awe and worship?  Do you carry each day with you a deep gratitude just knowing all that Christ has done?  He did what He did for you and for me?  He was bruised and He was crushed.  He was punished.  He was wounded.  All of this for you and me.  He did this because He loved us more than we’ll ever know.

We must consider what we get more excited about in life?  The gifts we get from people on this earth or the greatest gift we’ve been given to give us eternal life?  Nothing on earth should ever give us more joy than knowing Christ and His gift of life to us.  

No Greater Wisdom

“No Greater Wisdom”

By Zach Wood

Proverbs 2:6-8 NIV

For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

There is not one of us who would ever say that we don’t like getting good advice.  There are so many different situations we find ourselves in through the course of our years where we seek out people we trust and look up to and ask their advice.  The advice may not always be the most exciting news we want to hear, but it’s what we need to know so that we can learn, glean wisdom and become smarter and more successful. 

We all want wisdom.  Whether we are inspired through a song, by a movie, a book, talking to a family member or friend, we seek to find wisdom so that we can learn everyday to make good decisions and continue living with the determination to be better stewards of our time and resources.  Most of all, we should desire to be better about the time and resources that God gives to us each day.

No one disregards wisdom, unless we really hear something we don’t want to do.  We often cringe when someone gives advice to us we really don’t want to hear.  Deep in our hearts we are hoping to avoid what we know we have to do.  Many times, God puts people in our lives to give us wisdom and when we hear it, we honestly know we must move forward with those words of wisdom or we will dig ourselves a deeper hole of pain and frustration.

Consider this passage of our search for wisdom.  When God gives us direction through whatever means He chooses, are we opening our hearts to his direction and allowing Him to move in us and through us?  Are we going to be faithful in what we do so that He can better use us to do His will?  Or we do choose to follow Him only for a certain time only until we think we know how to live life better?  Our human wisdom will never keep us going very long.  Our understanding won’t last long. 

We desperately need the guidance and wisdom of our Savior.  He alone knows where we need to go, what we need to do and how we need to go about living the life He has called us to live.  We simply cannot do this life on our own.  We do and then we fail.  We follow Him and extraordinary things happen!

There is no wisdom greater or more powerful than that of our Heavenly Father.

His Plans Or Yours?

“His Plans or Yours?”

By Zach Wood

Proverbs 19:21 NIV

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

If there’s one thing we are all extremely good at, it’s coming up with great ideas of how to spend our time doing things.  Whether it is at work, at home or out and about with family or friends, we have no problems coming up with great things to do.  We like to get creative and come up with some crazy ways to spend our time.  We can have some real fun and adventure with different ideas while around our family and friends.

If there’s one thing we are all extremely bad about, it’s taking a step back before we make certain decisions and allowing God to lead us.  In this day and age, we have become so programmed to do what we want, when we want and how we want. So often we claim that we want the Lord to be in control of our lives and we say that He is in control.  But, if we’re really honest, so much of the time He is not in the driver’s seat and is not really guiding us because we apparently have things under control.

Does this sound like any of your lives??  I’m sure it does if you really stop think about it.  And, it describes mine as well.  I am so guilty of going about my day and failing to stop and really ask myself if I’m letting God be in control at all.  I may think He is, but really I am just asking Him to sprinkle some “blessings” as I go about MY plans for the day.

This is a very wise proverb.  We would be wise to take heed of this statement and be encouraged.  Friends, we must let God be in control of our lives.  We have so many plans in our hearts that we think will prevail, but in the end, they just lead to more confusion and more pain.

God has plans for our lives that we are completely unaware of.  How often do we truly surrender and just let Him lead?  How often do we completely allow Him to take the throne of our heart and just be God?  Many times what happens is we do ask Him to be in control and we let Him…..until He starts doing things we don’t agree with or that don’t seem to make sense.  Then, we push Him aside and push full-throttle with our plans instead.  In a sense we are saying, “Okay God, You did pretty good, but now I’ll take it from here!  I can handle this from here.”

When will we just let God be God and lead our lives?  When will we truly let His purpose prevail?  Isn’t it time we really let Him lead?

Seek To Be Humble

“Seek To Be Humble”

By Zach Wood

1 Peter 5:6 NIV

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

We all know there is a time and a place for everything.  There is a time to laugh and a time to cry.  There is a time to give advice and a time to just listen.  We could pick many different scenarios about when it’s a proper time to do this or do that.  Also a time when we should say this or say that. 

Throughout my years of life, I have regretted many times when I chose to focus on my needs and not the needs of others.  It’s not that my needs aren’t important, but Christ calls me to seek out the needs and concerns of others so that I can focus on them and reach out to them in their times of need. 

There have been times when I have been too proud of something I’ve done and have needed to be put in my place so that I scale down my attitude of pride.  It’s so hard many times to be humble.  So often I just feel the desire to think more of myself than I ought to and God reminds me of who I really am.  I am nothing without Him. 

There are so many times in our lives as Christians that we want to be recognized and rewarded for things we have done.  Not one of us would say we don’t desire to be noticed and appreciated for great things we have done.  However, we often want to be rewarded often for what we do and we would have to admit that we often also look for opportunities to do something for someone just to get recognized.

Friends, we must be humble.  Why?  Because Christ was humble and He calls us to the same life.  If we humble ourselves before God and allow Him to reward us when the time is right, He will.  He will reward us in a way or ways we’ve never dreamed possible.  However, we must submit ourselves to Him and release our pride and moments of selfish desires so that He can use us. 

We absolutely must be humble.  I am reminded of this song I sang all my years of growing up and into adulthood, “Humbly thyself in the sight of the Lord.  And He will lift you up.  Higher and higher and He will lift you up.”

Are we seeking to be humble so that God can lift us up in His time? 

Always There For Us

“Always There For Us”

By Zach Wood

Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

I am thankful that I have had so many people in my life, from the time I was a child until now, that I could look up to and rely on for support and love.  Whether it is a family member, a good friend, a mentor, or a teacher, I have always had people who would look out for me and help me along the way.  I am thankful for the caring people that God has put in my life to give advice and gently nudge me to help me make good decisions.

It is always a great feeling when we know people are there for us, loving and caring, helping us along the way when life is tough.  It feels great to know people love and want to help support us.  However, these people are human and they will let us down from time to time.  It isn’t that they don’t really care, but they are human and sometimes they just don’t say the right things or do the right things.  We end up getting hurt sometimes by people we really love and care about. 

While it is absolutely wonderful to have others whom we can turn to and rely on for support and strength, we must never forget Whom we can completely rely on every moment of every day and Whom will never let us down or break a promise.  He is always available when others are not.  He is always right there to hear us when we need to vent our frustrations.  He is always waiting to hold us when we are hurting.

As we enter this New Year, let us be reminded that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is always available for us and is there to guide and strengthen us when we need it most.  We can confidently approach God and know that He will never be too busy to hear us or sympathize with us.  In our greatest times of need, He is always ready and willing to walk with us and comfort us.  No matter what, He is always there. 

He is able, more than able, to sympathize with anything we are going through.  

Create & Restore

“Create & Restore”

By Zach Wood

Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV)

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

As we come close to the end of another year, many thoughts are going through people’s minds.  These thoughts can be anything from complete joy to complete sorrow.  The end of the year brings many thoughts about what our lives have been and what can be as we look to begin a new year.

Sometimes we really mess up during the year, but there are also times when we haven’t messed up, but bad things have ended up happening to us for one reason or another.  This can really make us angry and distraught in so many ways.  Maybe this year has been a really tough year for you with family or friends having a very difficult time.  Maybe it’s been a tough year with your job.  Maybe it’s been a tough year with some family situations you’d dealt with in your home.

There are endless scenarios we could bring up that can make a challenging year.  At the end of the year, we tend to be in two different worlds, so to speak.  We often dwell on the past year and the many things that we have done or said or that have happened to us.  Then we also think of the New Year and all that we want to accomplish or try new.

Whatever your thoughts are at this time, there are seasons of sorrow and seasons of joy.  Every human being experiences this.  David is no exception.  This is one of my favorite passages in Psalm.  David became a man after God’s heart.  He messed up big time and caused much grief, not only to himself, but also to others.  He had a lot of pain as he thought about the past and then looked to the future.

We all need to ask God to create in us a pure heart for various reasons.  We have thought and said bad things that we need to repent of.  We also need God to restore to us the joy of His salvation and the life He has given us.  He wants to create and restore in us a joy that only He can bring. 

Whatever you might be thinking about as you end this year and begin a new one, why not ask God this very day, and every day to create within you a sincere desire to have a pure heart and a restored life through Him?  He is so willing if you are willing to open up and let Him.  

He Understands

“He Understands”

By Zach Wood

John 1:14 (NLT)

“So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year.  Things are so festive and alive with different colors no matter where you go.  The feeling of Christmas and festivities is all around and people seem to have a different kind of spirit.  This is also one of my favorite times of the year because we talk about and focus on the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  He was born into this world and had a mission unlike any other mission anyone has ever had before.

The stories we hear each year about the birth of Jesus are wonderful to remember and cherish.  But I want to take this a bit further than just celebrating His birth. Not only was the Kind of Kings and Lord of Lords born into this imperfect world, He also lived a sinless life and went on a mission to make sure that we knew He loved us.

I am not only thankful for the time we spend focusing on celebrating His birth, but I’m also so thankful to know that we have a Savior Who came to this earth and lived among us. He lived among us filthy people and connected with those who truly needed Him. He came for the sick and for those who were completely lost.  He reached out to people who were outcasts.  He loved the unlovable.  He opened His life to connecting to those whom most of us probably would never consider coming close to.

The one thing I am so thankful for is that not only did He come to rescue us from our sin, but also He knows and understands everything we go through.  He knows the hurts we have.  He knows the pain we endure in every situation and circumstance that is hard.  He knows how we are feeling even when we can’t seem to really explain to anyone else.  He knows what we are truly feeling even when we can’t express it to Him.  He understands and knows all that we feel and all that we go through.

This time of year is hard for many people. A lot of people dread this time of year because of bad memories for one reason or another.  If you are one of those people who hurt this time of year and you don’t know who to reach out to, remember that Jesus, and only Jesus, truly knows your heart and your hurt more than anyone. He totally understands when no one else does.  He came to live among us and reach out to those who were hurting.

Reach out to Him.  He understands and loves you and wants to hold you.