God's Good Gifts

James 1:17 (NIV) -

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

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This morning, I had my first hot shower in two and a half months, and it was incredible.

For context, God has been leading me this year through a 90 day challenge which has acted like a spiritual detox - setting aside the comforts and distractions of this world and taking up a number of spiritual disciplines to grow my relationship with Him. It is out of this challenge that God has birthed these posts, as well as countless other things in my life, and it has been an incredible time of growth which I cannot thank Him enough for leading me through.

One part of the challenge was to only take short, cold showers - not because hot showers are bad, but as a sacrifice to God to show Him that I am choosing Him above my own comfort. Today, however, is Day 91, which means that I am free.

As I was standing under that amazing hot water, I could not help but thank God - for bringing me through the challenge, and for the beautiful and good gift that I was now enjoying. It brought back to mind this verse from James.

God is our loving Father, and He wants to give good gifts to His children. Everything good that happens to us, and every good thing that we have, we can thank God for because He has allowed us to have it (this also ties into what I'll be talking about tomorrow, actually).

As for the bad things that happen to us, while they might be caused by spiritual attack or fallen human nature, we can thank God even for those things, because God is allowing them to happen so that we can be brought closer to Him!! Keep in mind, this is not the same as God causing them to happen to us - you can read about that just a few verses above this one. (James 1:13-17)

Today, I'd encourage you all to view your day and the things that happen in it through the lens of gratitude. Thank God for every good gift, every small blessing - in my case, it's been hot showers, hot cross buns, and tea with milk so far this morning, with many more to come - but don't forget to thank Him for the bad things that happen as well, because they will help us grow as people and in our relationship with our loving Father.