This post is Day 26 in a series of studies about “Gifts & Giving”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).

Gifts & Giving – Day 26

We can only give what we have received. Some of us need to change our perspective and be more Jesus-centred, accepting His gift of life, not just for ourselves, but to give away to others. We have received His gift of life, and can share that with someone else today.

John 10:10

I am come that you might have life, life to the full.

The Thought

What a precious gift that is. The life that Jesus wants to give us is a full life “not as the world gives” (John 14:27), but so that we fulfill His purposes, not just for Him, but for ourselves as well.

Having Jesus’ life means that we are conscious of His presence and we live for Him on the earth, doing what He did when He actually walked the earth 2000 years ago. It’s a lot of fun, not an arduous task.

I believe life to the full means that we should live as Jesus lived. And that doesn’t mean not married, and being an itinerant preacher. I mean sharing love with those who don’t have too much of it. Real love! And that only comes from Father God.

We can only give what we have received. Many of us became Christians when we were young and didn’t fully understand what it meant or what it involved. For many, it meant peace and provision, no worries. That’s what it meant for me for a very long time, until I realised how “me-centred” that was.

Some of us need to change our perspective and be more Jesus-centred, accepting His gift of life, not just for ourselves, but to give away to others. We are not all evangelists, but we have all received His gift of life, and can share that however briefly, with someone else each day of our lives.

Later in John 10 Jesus talks of His followers as His sheep. My sheep listen to My voice, I know them and they follow me. (John 10:27) To follow Him means much more than just going where He goes, and eating the food He provides. It means looking like Him as people who follow pop idols dress like them and change hairstyles accordingly. As kids who watch cartoons fight like those heroes in their games at school.

Action

Thank Jesus today for His gift of life, and ask Him to help you accept and use that gift for His purposes.