Appreciated Gift

I am about to receive the gift of appreciation from God.

By that I mean I am going to appreciate where God has me and the blessings I have by looking through a lens only gained through divinely appointed experiences.

I am excited about it and I am so glad He is giving it to me.

What does the gift of appreciation look like? Let me a’splain.

The Context
Since 2007, I have been struggling financially. Not to the point of being homelss, naked or starving, but still struggling. I have been jobless in that time, I have overdrawn my account on multiple occations, been late on student loans not due to slothfulness, but to finances, and I still owe back taxes from 2007.

This is by no means a story of woe, and I am not exalting my situation of financial deprivation. I am simply setting context for a lesson learned…

Fast forward to the present time, the LORD has blessed me with an amazing job doing what I love with a great friend, and I am getting paid very well (agian, not a boast, but context). This job has the power to quickly pull me out of the strangling clutches of debt and plant me on the solid ground of financial stability with room to bless others. Granted, I have to do my part to steward my finances well, but the potential I rest in now will be maximized through this gift of appreciation.

On the flip side, I only get paid once per month and will not receive my first check for a while, so I am still living thin to say the least.

Ok, Context Laid
I was in a conversation with friend and coworker Sarah when she invited me for some hang out time with many of our friends. I politely declined because I didn’t have enough money for gas to last me until my paycheck.

Sarah: I am sorry, yo.
Jesse: I’m glad I have no money.
Sarah: You are?
Jesse: It’s going to make me appreciate it more when I finally do have money. I see it as a gift from God…

It was in that moment I welled up with love for my God because I have been financially miserable for the past year. I began to thank Him for not giving me money, for every bounced check, for every meal I had to skip, for every night like this where I literally could not afford to hang out with friends.

My past was shaped to help me appreciate my present and to dedicate my future to God. This is the gift called appreciation. It is not a gift easily received by any means, but it is the best way to wrap it.

Past depravity positively enhances your appreciation for your current abundant reality.

If I grew up blind, being depraved the sense of sight, then my new reality of being able to see will be enhanced by my past depravity. Likewise, my current reality of financial stability is infinitely enhanced by my past financial deprivation.

So look at any of your less than enjoyable situations through the eyes of heaven. For my situation, it has enabled me to consider my difficult circumstances pure joy. I have come to enjoy rather than endure. I have more love for God rather than more questions. God is good.

Advertisement