By David ReayWednesday 2 Aug 2017LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read James 1:17
1 Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. (THE MESSAGE)
Life can get all very ‘spiritual’ at times. Cocooned in our Christian bubbles, we immerse ourselves in Christian music, Christian writing, Christian fellowship. We earnestly seek to spend more time in prayer and the Bible. We feel we need to be more involved in our church life. Our conversations may become increasingly centred on faith and church.
None of which is a bad thing at all. As long as we don’t lose sight of what some theologians call ordinary or common grace—suggested in our text today. As long as we don’t succumb to the view that we find God only or even mainly in Christian circles. As long as we don’t think God can only speak to us through the Bible or a sermon or a Christian song.
God has poured out his common or ordinary grace on his loved creation. We enjoy such grace by playing with the pet dog, listening to Beethoven, admiring the paintings of the great masters, doing a good carpentry job, walking in the bush. God is not confined to ‘Christian’ things. It is in fact rather perilous to start precisely defining what is Christian music or literature, for example.
Of course we recognise that God has supremely revealed himself in Jesus. All other blessings we seek are to be in accord with Scripture. But God is not a miserly God. He wants us to encounter him and he has given us hints of his presence and goodness all around the place. Let’s not miss out on him by being more ‘spiritual’ than he is.
Blessings
David Reay