Three Gifts

There are three gifts that I want God to give me.  These are gifts that the children of Israel did not have, even though they had seen Him guide them out of Egypt with mighty miracles, through the wilderness fed on manna, and to the edge of the land of Canaan.  In Deuteronomy 29:4, Moses testified against them when he said, “Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.”

I want God to give me a heart to know.  I want a heart that first of all knows God.  I live in a world that is brimming with knowledge.  Technological knowledge is exploding.  Great advances are being made in micro-biology.  The oceans and space are handing over their secrets.  But few people really know God.  Most people don’t know that they don’t know or they don’t care that they don’t know.  I want to know God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – more intimately as time goes on. 

I want to know God’s Word.  There are gems and pearls that are just waiting to be mined.  God has spoken and what He says is important and it should be important to me.  I know I need to invest time in the Scriptures but if that is the price I need to pay to know God’s Word, I’m willing to pay it.

I want to know God’s people.  This world bangs and bruises, steals and stalks, defeats and destroys people.  I want to know God’s people so He can use me to build and bless, heal and help, strengthen and sustain.  God, give me a heart to know.

I want God to give me eyes to see.   I am convinced that God has a vision for me and for this church.  He has plans to use us in ways we cannot now imagine.  I sometimes get caught up in the minute and the meaningless and miss the better and the best.  Israel didn’t have eyes to see that God had great plans for them to conquer Canaan  when they gathered at Kadesh-Barnea.  As a result, an entire generation just marked time in the wilderness.  I don’t want to mark time when there is work to do and God is directing us to greater things.  God, give me eyes to see Your vision. 

I want God to give me ears to hear.  When Elijah was in a cave on Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai), he needed to hear instructions from God (1 Kings 19:11).  God told him to go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord because the Lord was passing by.  A great wind came that knocked rocks off the mountain.  But God was not in the wind.  After the wind came an earthquake that shook the mountain to its core.  But God was not in the earthquake.  Then came a fire.  But God was not in the fire.  Lastly came a sound of a gentle blowing, a still, small voice.  God was in the still small voice and Elijah heard it and God spoke to Him. 

This world is impressed with the glitz and the glamour, the big and the best, the loud and the lofty.  But God is not in them.  He still speaks in the still small voice.  God, give me ears to hear when You speak.

A heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear.  May God give these to me.  And to you.