Just think of what God has made. Think of the light and darkness, the earth and sky, the grass and fruit trees, the sun, moon and stars, the birds, fish and animals . . . and so much more. Did you ever wonder why He made it all? He did not make it for Himself; He made it to give away! What He did make for Himself is you and me!

It is the nature of God to give, and He wants to do it in a big way. After the Lord created all things, He created people ("male and female created He them") in His own image; then He gave to them all that He had made (Gen.1:26-31). The things I mentioned He made to give are mighty big, indeed, yet only small trinkets when compared with the spiritual gifts bequeathed to His children in the inheritance through the death of His Son!

We who belong to Jesus are blessed beyond measure to have a Heavenly Father who loves to give good gifts to His children. But there is a problem . . . a very big problem: WE ARE NOT GOOD RECEIVERS!

I have been struggling with this problem of not being a good receiver most of my lifetime. I first became aware of it when I was about seven years old. I was at my aunt's house which was in my neighborhood and she tried to give me a quarter, but I would not accept it. (Back in those days that was a gift a kid would be eager to receive, for then twenty-five cents would buy a lot more candy than it would in today's economy.) She tried three times to give it to me, and I kept refusing to accept her gift. I did not know why I acted like that; it was an automatic response. It disturbed me so much that I immediately left her house and went home.

My behavior bothered her, too, because she called my mother about it before I arrived home. As soon as I walked through the door, my mother asked me why I had rejected my aunt's gift. I said, "I don't know." She then said to me, "You must learn to receive when people give to you."

That is easier said than done. Most of the people I know are not good receivers. The problem is not just that we do not know how to receive from people, but we do not know how to receive from God. All good gifts come from Him, though He often sends them through a person. Some may say we should learn to give rather than to receive, because our Lord Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). It is true that we need to learn to give, but we will have nothing to give unless we first receive it from God. I am very happy to discover that I am finally learning how to receive.

I am very encouraged by something the Lord said to me recently. I had a dream that I was running swiftly, then took a big leap into the air, stretched my arms high over my head and caught something in my hands. It was like a football player making a spectacular catch in the end zone. When I woke up, the Lord spoke to my heart and told me that I am becoming a good receiver. I cannot find words to express what that message from Him did to change my life, and what benefits there are in learning to receive from God!

I am learning to be a good receiver the easy way: The Lord is the One who is doing the work on the inside, and it is taking me by surprise. Jesus is renewing my mind. He is doing a work deep down in my subconscious that I am not even aware of until He shows me what He has done. Then it seems as if He indicates to me that I did it, like the woman in the Bible whom He healed and then said to her, "Thy faith hath made thee whole" (Mat.9:22). He gave her the faith in the first place; it was His and became hers. She knew how to receive it and how to use it!

Becoming a good receiver does not come all at once; there are obstacles to overcome. We begin by learning to do it the right way; then, the more we do it, the better we become at it.

We have been taught from early childhood that it is a virtue to work and earn everything we have. Jesus told a parable of laborers in a vineyard, which clearly reveals how that old worldly work ethic does not apply in His Kingdom. The parable tells how the workers who had been hired first murmured when they found out that the lord of the vineyard gave the same wages to the ones who were hired late in the day as he had to them. No one had any reason to complain; they all received the wage for which they had agreed to work. We, too, get upset when we see someone receive something without deserving it, and it greatly hinders us from becoming a good receiver of God's gifts.

The master of the vineyard replied to his disgruntled workers, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?" (Mat.20:15) Should these workers have told the owner of the vineyard what to do with that which belonged to him? Does not God own everything? Are we to instruct Him how He should use what is His? Does not the Potter have power over the clay? Should Jonah have become angry when God spared Nineveh? Should the elder brother have been indignant because the father gave the prodigal son things he did not earn or deserve? Should we be offended when God gives good gifts to the undeserving? (Can you imagine what it would be like if God gave us what we really deserve?!)

Not all have that "work to deserve it" attitude. There actually are people who view their work as a gift from God, as the Bible states in Ecclesiastes 3:13, and are thankful to be able to earn provisions for themselves and their loved ones. They know their skills and abilities are given to them by the Lord. They do not boast about how they earn what they have, for they are aware that they are dependent on God for everything, including their next breath! For the self-made man who thinks he is doing it by himself, he should listen to the words of Jesus who said, "For without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

The reason I am so encouraged by the Lord telling me I am becoming a good receiver is not just that it makes me aware I am learning to receive the wonderful things He has created for me; the greatest blessing is to know a true concept of God is developing within my heart. That comes only by revelation from the Holy Spirit! This false notion that we must work to earn gifts from God is just a symptom; the root of the problem of not being a good receiver is HAVING A POOR CONCEPT OF GOD, which is the cause of most of our problems.

In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, the master said to the workers who were upset because they thought others were getting more than they deserved, "Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" (Mat.20:15). We have an evil eye when we look at someone in a bad way. We do this a lot with our brothers and sisters in the Lord; instead of viewing them as God does through the sacrifice of His Son, we look at all their faults and weaknesses. But the epitome of having an evil eye is having a bad concept of God.

Picture in your mind this dilemma: There is a father of a large family who has a heart full of goodness and love for his children. There he stands with his strong arms filled with good gifts that he longs to give to his beloved ones; but, alas, they are not in a position to receive them, for they are running away from him. The reason they are running away is because they are afraid of him, even though he is absolutely good. These children have an enemy--a master of deception--who has led them to believe a wrong perception of their father. This has caused them not to draw near to him to receive all the love and wonderful gifts he has for them.

Satan led Eve to believe a wrong concept of God, and if that could happen to her, it can happen to you and me. This is his number one device to drive people away from God; he is waiting for any opportunity to use it. The devil has tried to use every bad thing that has happened to us from early childhood on to convince us that God is not good. Of course, we who belong to God say we do not believe that lie of the devil, but there are many things lodged deep in our subconscious of which we are not aware. That is why we need a renewing of the mind.

That, too, is a gift from God. We cannot renew our own minds by an educational program. But how can God give us this gift if we are running away from him? Perhaps, in His goodness, He does a lot of healing in our subconscious without us being aware of it, until He reveals it in a dream or some other way.

Peace is one of the gifts in our inheritance. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). When we are filled with fear and anxiety rather than resting in the peace of God, it is a sign we are not being a good receiver and are running away from our Lord. A Christian on the run from God is as easy to spot as a jogger running down the street. Being buried in our work--even though it may be good work--is running from the Lord. We can come up with many reasons why we cannot seem to enter into quietness where we receive strength (Isa.30:15), but the fact of the matter is that we are afraid of God. We are afraid to be alone with Him, and it is because we have believed a wrong concept of Him. We have a lie lodged somewhere within us that He is other than good.

King David said, "I had fainted, unless I had BELIEVED to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Ps.27:13). "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" (Ps.33:5), but we will not see that if we have an evil eye in the way we view God. We should remember that when God made the earth and all that was in it, He "saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen.1:31). Then He gave it to us, and we, after believing a lie from Satan that gave us a bad concept of God, made a choice to separate from Him and go our own way. The devil has used us to corrupt the good gifts made for us. 

Recently, I met a woman who was upset with God because her daughter was raped. I can understand why she questioned God allowing such an awful thing to happen, along with all the other things that go on in this world that are outside His will. This may sound strange, but even in all the evil God allows, we can see His goodness just in the fact that He does not violate man's free will by controlling him. He has given mankind freedom to do good or to do evil. In His goodness, He has also made time for man to repent and receive His forgiveness before the Great Judgment Day.

Becoming a good receiver is really entering the Promised Land, a land filled with "milk and honey." It is a life where we know our Heavenly Father meets all our needs--a life of rest, free from the curse of having to earn by the sweat of our brow (Gen.3:19). But all of the gifts we receive from God will not bring us the joy we long for unless we get to know the Giver! Even the gift of eternal life will not be enjoyed as it should unless we really get to know Jesus. Oh yes, we can know that He is our Savior, but still not know Him as we should. We must become better acquainted with our Lord by spending more time alone with Him; and to want to do that, we must believe that God is good! "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 22:21).