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Gimme
By Jerri
Phillips
Like most parents, we
really enjoy giving our children toys and
surprises. It’s nice to be able to
pick up things we know they’ll
enjoy, and God has blessed us so we can
afford to do that within reason. Our
daughter, Anna, also receives gifts from
other people. God has simply granted her
favor with people she knows and with
strangers alike. Her combination of
personality and looks simply attracts
people to her, and they generously give
to her. In response, she is typically
very good about expressing her gratitude,
which is truly heartfelt, and she often
asks God to bless those who bless her.
(With our encouragement, she is also
learning to ask for blessings for those
who do not bless her.) All in all, she
receives with deep appreciation and
gratitude with only a few exceptions,
like me.
For whatever reason, I can give Anna
anything, and not only does that child
suddenly lose her memory and forget to
say thanks, she has the audacity to
criticize whatever I have given her.
Okay, that isn’t exactly accurate.
What happens is whatever I give her
isn’t good enough, big enough, or
just plain enough, and she lets me know
it.
For instance, yesterday I stopped by a
garage sale to see if I could find shoes
for Robert since he is outgrowing
virtually everything we own. I did find
some shoes that are a few sizes bigger
than he needs right now but good for
later, and I also found two rocking
planes. I don’t even know how to
describe these toys, but suffice to say,
there were two. The price was great.
It’s hard to beat $2.00 for these
things even if they were slightly
damaged. Well, I bought one because I
knew Robert would like it. Although I
considered buying the second one, I
decided not to because of Anna’s
attitude as of late. While talking to the
kind lady having the garage sale, I
mentioned my having two children and
wondering if I should buy one for each of
them, and she told me to take both planes
for the price of one. (See what I am
saying about God giving Anna favor with
people?) With great appreciation, I did.
The children were napping when I arrived
home, but when they awoke, Robert
immediately started playing on one of the
planes. He was thrilled. Anna, seeing her
brother, got on the other one.
“He has a horn. My horn is broken. I
want a horn.” Rob and I rolled our
eyes. Now, the other plane had no handle,
but it had a horn. Anna’s solution
was to take the handle out of
“hers” and put it in the one
with the horn and Robert could have the
cannibalized one while she played with
the complete one.
“No.”
“But-“ wrong response.
“Anna, you are grounded from the
toys. You cannot play with the planes at
all today, and if I hear one more
negative comment, I’ll take yours
and give it to someone else. I have had
it with your lack of gratitude. You never
said thank you. You just started finding
fault with what I gave you. That’ s
enough.”
Now, you may be thinking what I did.
“Sort of full of yourself,
aren’t you? You need to learn to be
thankful for what you have instead of
griping.” If you are like me, you
see children and adults like this, and it
annoys you. With disdain, you tolerate
their selfish habits while thinking they
are spoiled brats, and you silently (or
not so silently) ask, “Where did you
get the idea that the world was created
to cater to you?” I don’t know.
Where did we get that idea? If we are
honest, we all have the built-in ability
to expect someone or Someone to cater to
our wants as well as to be close-minded
enough to expect it to be exactly as we
want it. Sort of sickening, isn’t
it?
Sadly, this is nothing new. As far back
as biblical times, the Lord has dealt
with people who were never happy with
what they had. They always wanted more.
We find one such example in the first
chapter of Acts. Let me set the stage for
you.
Jesus has died and is now resurrected.
For forty days, He appears to a variety
of people demonstrating His presence and
life. However, the time has come for Him
to return to the Father, and the
disciples are not sure they like this.
They know the prophecies about the new
kingdom. Their familiarity with the
prophets gives them hope that the harsh
Roman rule will come to an end when the
new kingdom is established, and according
the prophet Isaiah, the new kingdom will
never end, so the Romans will be gone for
good. Finally, the long awaited Messiah
has come, and surely now He will
establish His new kingdom. Surely now
that He has accomplished this death and
resurrection thing He had to do, He will
now assume His rightful throne. But wait.
What is this about Jesus going away
again? How is He going to usher in the
new kingdom if He goes away?
The disciples were ready for the new
kingdom. They wanted the bondage and
oppression to be gone. And who can blame
them? Aren’t we like that?
Don’t we want the problems that
plague us to be gone? We read self-help
books and the Bible in search of anything
that promises deliverance from our
misery. Granted, we may not live under a
tyrannical government like the disciples,
but we have other things. Some of us are
trying to escape circumstances that we
consider overwhelming or beyond our
control. Some of us are seeking a refuge
from memories of sin we committed. All of
us are trying to feel better. It’s
just that each of us has a different idea
of what that would take: a car, a new
house, a husband, a baby, a drink, a new
job, or any of a million other things.
Which one works for you?
In our quest to find peace, if we are
blessed enough to realize the Bible holds
our only real answer, we too often use it
as a means of presenting our latest wish
list. We hunt for verses that promise
blessings. We diligently exam the methods
of the patriarchs, so that we may receive
the coveted blessing. Painstakingly, we
analyze the prayers and pick out key
words and phrases. What does it take to
get God to blow away the binding powers
that make us miserable so we can have
what we want? The disciples were asking
the same thing.
Jesus, however, had a whole different
idea. He had never been into doling out
blessings just for giggles. When He
blessed, it was with a spiritual end in
mind, and His focus had not changed.
In the scripture when Jesus told His
followers that He was returning to the
Father, they had a simple question:
“Is this when you will restore the
kingdom?” In essence, they were
asking, “Is this the big one? Is
this the time when you are going to bless
us with what we’ve all been waiting
for?”
Jesus’ response was typical.
“It’s not our place to know the
Father’s timing.” It sounds
like a simple enough answer, but if you
look deeper, Jesus is still staring at
these guys with disbelief. “After
this whole time, do you really think that
is what all this is about? Have you not
yet figured out that I don’t care
about the Romans? I’m not here to
give you gifts. I’m here to give my
Father glory, and to that end you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
on you, and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
If you are like me, you have been
blessed. In fact, if we were truthful
with each other, we realize that the
blessings we have received are beyond
anything we deserve, and if we are honest
with each other, we are still asking for
more. Something eludes us. Unfortunately,
we think the elusive joy comes in the
color green or in the form of a Lexus. A
little more money each month, a little
bigger house, a different place to live,
we keep looking, and still, we are coming
up empty. Why? Maybe we need to learn
what the disciples learned.
My brothers and sisters, God is gracious
in blessing us and meeting our needs, but
no matter what He offers us, we will live
impoverished lives as long as we are so
focused on seeking the Father’s hand
that we forget the glory of seeking His
face.
After Jesus spoke with the disciples,
they went to Jerusalem, and they waited.
They quit reading the Jerusalem Times to
see if the politicians had suddenly
changed their way of thinking and
accepted Christ as the Messiah, and they
stopped complaining about the hollow
Pharisees holding blasé services in the
Temple. Instead of looking around them,
they got on their knees, and they looked
up. What they found rocked not only their
lives but changed the world.
After ten days of seeking God’s
face, the Promise came. The Holy Spirit
fell on that group of selfless seekers as
tongues of fire, and when the day was
done, 3,000 people had come to believe in
Christ and were baptized (Acts 2:41). A
band of a few followers, exploded, and it
didn’t stop there. Peter was so
filled with power that sick people were
placed so his shadow would fall on them,
and they sick were miraculously healed
(Acts 5:15). In a short time, the number
grew to 5,000 (Acts 4:4). What would we
do if our churches exploded like that?
Have services in the parking lot? That
would be real inconvenience,
wouldn’t it? Maybe God doesn’t
care about what is convenient, and we
should get over it as well.
Were the disciples being blessed?
Let’s see, they were beaten, thrown
in jail, forced to flee towns for their
safety, and even killed. I personally
wouldn’t call those blessings, but I
haven’t read where any of the
followers turned back or were known to
regret their decision. In fact, these
very people were the ones known to be
singing in jail and leading their jailers
to Christ (Acts 16:25-33). Peter is the
one who requested to be crucified upside
down because he did not count himself
worthy to die as Christ did. No. Their
blessings were not want the people around
them would covet, but then, did the
people around them see Jesus standing at
the hand of God ready to welcome them
into the kingdom like Stephen did (Acts
7:55-60)?
Too often we claim to want God when we
really want His goody bags. We profess to
seek Him when in truth we are seeking
what makes our lives cushy and comfy. God
doesn’t care about comfy and cushy.
He cares about drawing people to Him, and
we will only accomplish such a lofty goal
when we seek Him alone, giving no thought
to how it will benefit us.
This Sunday is the day on which we
celebrate Pentecost. If you find that
despite asking Jesus for whatever you
need to fill your latest void isn’t
giving you the joy you want, and if you
find that your latest spiritual
“toy” isn’t making you
happy, maybe it’s time to be a
disciple, the kind of disciple we find in
the last part of Acts 1. Take time away
from what you think you need or what you
want, and embrace the truth. “Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteous, and all these things will be
added unto you (Matthew 6:33).” If
you do, if you seek God with abandon of
self and with passion for Him, you will
find that everything you could possibly
get from His hand is nothing in
comparison to what you see when you look
in His face. You may be wondering exactly
what to expect if you do become that
radical and that hungry for God.
I’ll be honest. I don’t know
what will happen, but I look forward to
sharing experiences with you in the
parking lot.
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