I love free stuff.  In fact, “free” is a four letter word that gives me great joy! I especially love free stuff when it’s great quality and something that I have been wanting for some time.  I remember once when I needed a chandelier for our dining room.  We didn’t have the money to purchase one but I had seen a chandelier at a local store that I loved.  One day, my mother-in-law, not knowing anything about the chandelier I had been eyeing, gave me a gift certificate to that very store! You better believe that I bolted over to the store, purchased the chandelier and had my husband up on a ladder installing it that night! And the best part about that blessing is that every time I look at that chandelier, I am reminded that God provided the exact thing that I was hoping for which made the waiting so worthwhile!

What about you? Do have any stories about stumbling upon or being given something that you wanted for a while?

Here’s another angle to “free” stuff that I was pondering the other day.  A few weeks ago, my husband and I rented a beach house for our vacation.  We rent the same house during the same week of July every year.  We let our grown children, extended family and friends know well in advance that they are welcome to come up and enjoy the beach house.  We only ask that they let us know in advance when they plan to come so we can prepare food and make sure that beds are made.

This year, one of our children flew up from a distant state with his fiancée to be with us for half the week.  They both took their vacation time from their jobs and made the arrangements to come up.  Two of our daughters took a day to come up due to their work schedules.

My husband and I open up the opportunity for time together at the beach house at our expense because we want to enjoy special moments with our family and friends. God is the same way with us.  God desires to lavish us with blessing because He loves us. Nonetheless, we have to take advantage of the opportunity to be with Him.  He has already opened the house up and paid for everything and He’s inviting us to come and spend time with Him.  But the decision will always be ours.  Just as my husband and I never force our kids to be with us, but try to make the opportunity as accessible as we can, God will never force us to come and fellowship with Him.  He has done all the heavy lifting here.  At the price of His Son, he opened the way to a relationship with Him.  What cost Him everything is “free” to us.

With God, we’re not invited to a religion.  We’re beckoned into a relationship where we are nourished, built up, strengthened and encouraged.  A relationship where we can be real, vulnerable, imperfect and on a journey towards godliness.  God doesn’t want to spend time with us because we do everything right, but because we’re His.  And it’s in His presence that we become the better version of ourselves that we could never produce in our own strength.

So come on in to the free gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8: Contemporary English Version

You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own.

Now you:

• Do you find yourself struggling to provide for yourself when all that you need has been provided?
• Do you strive to become something that God says you already are in Him?
• Are you standing on the outside, trying to make everything in your life work in your own strength when the Lord is calling you to come in and enjoy the free gift of salvation and all that comes with it?
• Have you made a habit of consciously entering in to God’s presence, the place that He has provided for our safety, comfort, and refuge?

Dear heavenly Father, please show me how to enter in to the dwelling place that You have prepared for me.  Lord God, I know that You have opened the way and now beckon me to come in to experience Your kindness that is overwhelming.  I am humbled by the fact that you would sacrifice Your Son for me so that I can have a relationship with You. Please reveal to me how to continually enter in to Your presence and find rest for my soul. Lord, You are good and Your mercy is never ending. For this I give you praise! Amen.