Practicing Glory: a gift-giving guide

Last Christmas, I took my youngest daughter shopping for her sisters. Tina wanted to buy a gift for her daddy too, and (because she admired it) she thought baby blue nail polish was just the thing.

I offered a few other suggestions, she remembered gifts that I had given in the past, and in the end, she chose a scarf.

It was wonderful to watch her give it to Mark on Christmas Day. Mark is the wage-earner who enables all the gift-giving in our home, but Tina enjoyed the giving and Mark appreciated the gift.

In a similar way, I have nothing to offer God without His enabling me to do so, and I need a little guidance in how to worship Him. I want to serve Him thoughtfully, to look at the commands in His word, and to see how others have put those into practice over the centuries. As I mentioned in a previous post, the spiritual disciplines are a suggested gift guide for us as we worship the Greatest Giver.

Let us hold on to grace. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe.

(Hebrews 12:28)
And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)
May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word. (2 Corinthians 2:16-17)

Practicing Glory explores ten spiritual disciplines that I see in the lives of the first worshipers of the Lord Jesus: worship, confession, stillness, surrender, service, fellowship, sacrifice, discernment, celebration and simplicity.

Click here to find other posts about this Bible Study book.