“What can I offer the Lord for all He has done for me?” – Psalms 116:12
As humans we require the love, relationship, and touch of other humans. We intuitively understand this even as children. I remember gifting my mother on many occasions with a bouquet of hand-picked clover flowers (adding the odd buttercup for a splash of color), because I wanted to show her that I loved her. I would present the bouquet, held together with a knotted stem, hoping she would like the flowers. Would she find my gift pleasing?
She would make a show of placing the little bouquet into a Dixie Cup of tap water and setting it in the window over the kitchen sink, where I could see it outside as I played. My mother loved my gift not because she had a thing for clover flowers, but because the gift demonstrated the condition of my four-year-old heart; I loved my mother.
I’ve moved past bouquets of clover flowers, but those little flowers aren’t far off the mark. Well, not actually the flowers, but the motivation behind the flowers. God wants us to love Him.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 23:37)
The big question is how do we show God we love Him? What gift would He find pleasing? We’re only humans, so what could we give God, the maker, owner, and King of all?
There is one thing. One small thing that we have that God would like. Our hearts. Technically, our hearts are His like everything else, but He made a little thing called free-will that allows us to have ownership. We can do whatever we like with our hearts, but how do we use them to show God we love Him? Jesus said if we love Him, we would keep his commandments (John 14:15). I like to turn that phrase around and say, keeping his commandments shows that we love Him. Love put into action is obedience. We have the choice: follow Him or our own desires; be obedient to Him or chase after our own lusts; succumb to temptation or turn away. Ah, there it is, the “T” word: Temptation. Temptation steps in and ruins this great Love Fest we’re having with God.
Temptation is where it gets real when it comes to loving God and being obedient to Him. Here it is then: We can make our resistance to temptation a gift to God. In that moment when your flesh most desires to satisfy its own cravings, turn away and offer that moment up to God as your gift to Him. Frame it in your mind that way; your gift to Him. Allow Him to turn your moment of weakness into an expression of your love for Him.
The next time you burn with desire for that sin you harbor deep within your heart, the one you keep hidden that you think no one knows about, the one you turn to when life is hard or when your heart aches or when you feel empty and wanting something, anything…when the desire to run to that sin overtakes you, take it and offer it to the one who gave everything for you as a gift of love. That is the provision God has given us that we may in turn gift to Him.
“This is for you, God, this bouquet of clover flowers. I picked them and tied them with my own hands. The sin that I chose to walk away from is there, too. It’s all tangled up among the wiry stems and tiny white pedals. I hope and pray that you find this expression of my love pleasing, and enough.”
“It is enough, because I have done everything else”, says God.
God sets my little bouquet in a Dixie cup in the window, so both He and I can see. Every day I bring Him more bouquets, and in no time the window sill is full of my small victories. I notice that I’m talking with God more. A lot more. How could I not? He’s right there at the window, living life with me.
One day I look towards the window and I’m saddened to see that my bouquets aren’t there anymore. Exquisite bouquets of roses fill the window instead. My mind races trying to think of why God would toss away my flowers, my victories. In an instant He answers, “I haven’t thrown away your flowers. The roses are your bouquets. To you they were only humble clover flowers, but now you see them as they are to me; the most lovely and fragrant roses.”
John Talbert
WBC Member
