Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 9 June 2022 || Thursday Message
Read Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 9 June 2022 2022
Topic: Every Good Gift
Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 9 June 2022 MESSAGE
Have you ever sat down at your computer, opened a file, and started listing all the good things that God has brought into your life? Maybe you’ve gotten as far as twenty items and thought you were done. After all, you had to stretch your thinking to be even that specific.
Ah, but there’s more. So much more than we can possibly imagine. If we let the full impact of a verse like James 1:17 blow apart our ideas about God’s blessings, we’d see our list suddenly stretch past the horizon.
Listen to this familiar verse in the Message paraphrase:
Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. James 1:17, The Message
Rivers of light! Every good gift falling from heaven! Think of it. James is saying that every good time you’ve ever had in this world comes directly from God. (I mean good times—not sinful times.)
Can you think of the times you ever laughed and enjoyed yourself on an evening with friends? Can you remember the funny jokes? Can you recall the first time you won a game of Monopoly—flush with fake cash but feeling like a miniature tycoon? Can you remember your first date? Well, maybe you’d like to forget the first date. How about your fifth date, when things got a little more comfortable? How about your first crack at water or snow skiing?
Or a special walk with a little child who loved you?
Or that special evening with your family by a campfire, under the star-strewn heavens?
Can you remember hearing some music that went right to your heart and brought goose bumps to your back or tears to your eyes? The Bible says here that your Father is the origin of every joyful smile that has ever crossed your face.
How about God’s provision of good food? Summer-fresh corn on the cob with lots of butter and salt and pepper. Rich, moist, double-layer chocolate cake. Or maybe a juicy hamburger with all the trimmings! When you think about it, God could have made all our nourishment taste the same. But no, instead he chose to make our food taste good, and created our taste buds to appreciate every bite. He even created brussels sprouts to…well, I’m not sure why he created brussels sprouts.
And then there is color. People as old as me might remember the Disney TV theme from years ago… “The world is a carousel of color….” And so it is. When you think about it, the Creator didn’t have to make a world in color. He could have wrapped it all in battleship gray. Think of all the beautiful sunsets—one every minute all over the world, like a rolling wave of radiance. Picture the spongy green of spring-fresh grass or the pink of a hyacinth or crocus. In a recent news item about a middle-aged man who gained his sight after a lifetime of blindness, the awestruck man was quoted as saying, “I never imagined that yellow could be so—yellow.”
Our God is the God of sunrise splendor, the haunting loveliness of the northern lights, the explosion of color from the heart of a diamond, and well, so many wonderful things I couldn’t list them in a million pages. Things like…
…hot buttered popcorn
…red rosebuds, wet with dew
…spring rain
…Thanksgiving turkey
…bear hugs from your best friend
…freshly laundered towels
…ice tea on a hot summer day
…the cheery warmth of a winter fire
…and the laughter of a child
Every good thing comes from the Father. “Every desirable and beneficial gift.” Every single one of them. And more than that, these good things are gifts. Gifts to be received with heartfelt gratitude.
As David wrote, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.” Psalm 139:17-18
All too often, though, you and I save our mental checklists for all the bad and discouraging things—especially when we’re facing times of adversity. We file away in our thinking all the times we’ve ever been disappointed, embarrassed, used, humiliated, or hurt. And soon we find ourselves irritated and complaining—clutched at the throat by an ungrateful spirit.
Even though our own pain might scream for our individual attention, God wants us to come to him with a heart full of thankfulness for all the good things in life. Everything from the joy of a Christ-centered friendship to the first lick of a double-scoop pistachio-almond-fudge ice cream cone.
Every good gift comes from the same Giver.
Wayside Interlude(Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 9 June 2022)
“Unfailing love and truth have met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed!
Truth springs up from the earth,
and righteousness smiles down from heaven.
Yes, the Lord pours down his blessings.
Our land will yield its bountiful crops.
Righteousness goes as a herald before him,
preparing the way for his steps.”
Psalm 85:10-13, NLT
What are some of the good gifts that you have experienced in the last few days? Think carefully. Remember some really wonderful gifts come from the hand of God disguised as something else! Offer your thanksgiving today to the Father of Light.
Thanks for reading Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 9 June 2022