This morning my email daily devotional was about accepting God's gifts with a simple gracious heart-felt thank you.  Not a cash donation, not a labor of work in return. Just say thank you and mean it,  was what the message implied.

Oh, can I say thank you. I can cry and I can laugh. i can dance for joy and I can sit in contemplative silence. but it still feels so little in comparison to what I have been given.  God has just blown me away with his provision and goodness. His love and compassion, his favor, his mercy.... his grace.

I am beginning to get a better picture of what grace really looks like and what it really means. When someone does something for you that you CAN'T repay. When someone does something for you that you know you really don't deserve. That's why it is grace.

We were just given a car.  just about everybody knows about the ongoing car saga in our life lately. But we never ever in our wildest dreams imagined the gift of a new car.  but it's not just the car. there have been so many gifts of love over the last several months... support has come in many forms and the outpouring of love overwhelms me.

I keep thinking of the movie "Facing the Giants'. in the movie the main character, Coach Taylor, after months of oppression and fear, finds the strength and courage from the Holy Spirit to tackle life and experiences a profound turn around in every aspect of his life. And the blessings start to flow. And just when he thinks it can't get much better, he is surprised with the gift of a brand new truck. And he stands in the parking lot of the school in tears, rubbing his hand over his head saying ' Lord you gave me a truck! I'm overwhelmed"

its a sweet scene and while the truck is only a minor thing compared to what God does in Coach Taylor's life later (I won't mention the spoiler if you haven't seen the movie)  it was still a pretty big gift. But we have a pretty big God!

So, as Bruce and I have tried to wrap our heads around this latest blessing, we feel so inadequate in saying thank you. I determined that this car came from God and I want to use it to glorify him and so I put my name on the transportation ministry team list at church. If someone needs a ride I'm your 'go-to gal".

But this mornings devotional was another humbler. Yes, it's great to want to serve God and I know he loves and welcomes me into his ministry. But part of what God has been trying to teach Bruce and I is how to receive.  And I sensed God was saying, "it's great that you want to do this Robyn, but understand what a gift means. no strings, no sense of obligation. just accept and enjoy the gift."

O.K. Lord .... I'm going to have to  walk barefoot.... since you decided to bless my socks off!

The Lord provides and the Lord decides....