These Priceless Gifts

John 4:9-14 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."


This morning I was meditating on gifts.


A gift is a wonderful thing. But a gift is never as straightforward as it seems. Gift giving is to build relationships.


Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman about the gift God wanted her to have. That gift would meet the deepest needs of her life. And it would spring up within her to provide for the needs of others.


But notice he said to her "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."


Surrounded gifts of God in creation, living in the gift of God of her own body and confronted with the ultimate gift God would give to the world - his son Jesus, she did not know the gift of God.


Jesus says that if she did know the gift of God and who he was she would ask......


James 4:2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.


We often seek to gain things through wrong means that God has already desired to give us. But we don't ask becouase we do not recognize His generosity.


How true is this?


Think about what I just said....


When we consider our lives, everything is a gift from God. EVERYTHING.


All that we have, everyone who cares for us, every internal blessing, our bodies, minds and spirit, even the very air we breathe all are gifts from God.


Surrounded by the continual evidence of God's wonderful heart of giving we are to become intimately aquainted (know) with the Gift of God.

I see that when we really comprehend the generosity of God we are confident to ask Him for the things we desire from Him and most of all we live lives of gratitude for eveything He does give us...... everything.

And like Jesus told the woman at the well that gratitude springs up as a well of living water bringing us personal refreshing but alos bring others as well.

When I am in the presence of a grateful person everything about them blesses me. When I am in the presence of a person, who through their lack of understanding of the precious gifts we are given, is full of unthankfulness I feel extremely sad.

The difference is not what we are given. The difference is our attitude about it.

Entitlement produces dissatisfaction which in turns breeds poverty. Gratitude for everything produces a positive heart no matter what happens. And that positive heart is rich towards God and is always provided for.