The Lord Gives and I Take

The Lord Gives and I Take

Rosalie Cowick

ISBN 979-8-88685-802-0 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88685-803-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Rosalie Cowick

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All scriptures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

A huge thank you to my grandson, Lucas Cowick, who created the idea for the cover of this book!

Introduction

The Lord Gives and I Take

Almighty God

Redeeming Savior

Love Incomparable

A Heavenly Home

Father God, a Relational God

The Ultimate Instructions

Protector and Defender

Promise Keeper

God Imparts Gifts to His Children

The Giver of Gifts to Everyone

What Can I Give Back to God?

Lifting Up the Name of Jesus

Accepting the Gift of Grace

Walking in the Light of Jesus

Living in Purity

Breathlessly Conversing with God

Pressing into His Word

Complete Faith/Trust

Unreserved Obedience

Being Thankful

Entrusted with the Care of Others

My Sufferings

Conclusion

About the Author

A huge thank you to my grandson, Lucas Cowick, who created the idea for the cover of this book!

Introduction

The Lord Gives and I Take . What a title. It doesn't sound too good for us, does it? What does it mean? I could spend the rest of my life writing about what God gives to each one of us, even to those who do not walk with the Lord, and I would never come to the end of what he provides. His hand is continually pouring out. Most of us do not even think about this. And if we do, we look at this with our very dim-sighted eyes, and then we move on to other things. Much of our time is spent on the expectations of what we want from him. But he gives and he gives and he gives. And the reality is, we take, and we take, and we take and never give it a thought. We take all that he supplies with very little thankfulness to God. We are greedy, and we expect so much, and the truth is, we are so undeserving.

This book is going to take us through just a short list of the things that God gives to each of us. Through it, we will begin to get a glimpse of who our Sovereign God is and how great, mighty, and all-powerful he is, and yet he extends such mercy, love, and grace and continually shows how much he loves his creation.

It is time that we wake us, stand up, notice what God is doing for us every minute of every day, and worship him in thankfulness and praise. I will be sending you to your Bible to read and meditate on Scripture, and I will include many verses in this book. As you come across one of these verses, take your Bible and read the whole chapter to grasp the complete foundation of the Scripture verse I have included. For in God's Holy Word, we find God's true character and his lavish outpouring. The Bible is the story of who he is and his love for us. It also tells us who we are. It starts from before the beginning of time that God created for us and takes us into eternity.

Can we ever pay God back? Never. Never. Never. But we can recognize, appreciate, embrace, and be thankful for what he has done, is doing, and will do by honoring him and living our lives in his love and in service to him, worshipping and giving him all the glory, and bringing to light his word to those who don't know him.

I stand in awe and amazement at the Lord's grace for humankind. He holds it all together for us. May we change the casualness in our hearts and minds that we take toward him and begin to develop a view of his awesome mercy and grace. Join me in plunging into the depths of his goodness.

In the first part of this book, I want to examine many of the ways that our Father God gives to us continuously, sometimes, or I should say many times, ways that we don't even give a thought to. And know that this is not an exhaustive list. And then in the second part, I would like to talk about ways that we can give back to him. Now don't take what I am saying wrong. There is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation nor to pay back the price that God has paid to draw us to him. But our life's journey should be all about returning to him his due, giving ourselves to him completely, everything that we should be giving him in humble thankfulness and praise. My list will not be all-inclusive, but it should begin your quest to see what He is doing for you every day.

Part 1

The Lord Gives and I Take

God is good all of the time. Start out with this premise first. This is not something that we hope that he is, but it is his character. He doesn't have good days and bad days. He is good all of the time. And he tells us that all, not some, but all good and perfect gifts come for him. James 1:17 reminds us, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The next premise is that God does not lie. In Numbers 23:19, we read, " God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" And the third premise is that God does not change. In Malachi 3:6, God says, For I am the Lord , I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. And we are also told in Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. The characteristics of God are from eternity past to eternity future and give us a solid rock to stand upon in season and out of season.

Chapter 1

Almighty God

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

—Colossians 1:16

And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

—Hebrews 1:10–12

God, you are God alone! There is no other God. There is no one like you!

Let's start at the beginning. Before we can talk about what God provides and that he most wants to have a personal relationship with us, we must know as much as we can about God and who he is. He is real, more real than anything in our lives.

Think for a moment about God. He is so far beyond our comprehension. He is not human as we are. He is so much more than we are, for he is our creator, all-powerful, ever present, everywhere. He knows all things, past, present, and future. He is eternally sovereign, and nothing happens without his presence. Sometimes without even realizing it, we try to see him in our image as a person, and that is an error on our part. He is the Creator, and we are his creation. He created us for his good pleasure, not the other way around. He is eternal; I am finite, having a beginning.

God is the Creator of all things. While we are worthy of nothing from Almighty God, he gave us his very best in his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us to him. And he continues to give and give to us. Have you ever thought about this? Have you ever spent time creating a list of what he provides to us and how plenteous and passionate he is in his lavish gifts? How much do we keep taking from him? How much do we keep asking for and receiving? When do we even begin to think about and start to give back? If you remember back, as we began our walk with Christ, we were so thankful to him for his saving grace that we pledged our whole life, our obedience, our very self to him. And I do believe when we said this at the beginning that we really did mean it. And then time kept going.

So we know that God is the Creator of all and is above and over all. But what does this mean? God's attributes include that he is pure, holy, righteous, love, and just. We easily take this too lightly. We need to grasp what God is holy means. In the Old Testament, it is mentioned well over four hundred times. This is pretty significant. Holy means being set apart, sacred, pure, and blameless. In defining God as holy, it is not a concept of who he wants or tries to be. It is who he is at all times.

The Bible talks continuously about God being holy, and he calls us to holiness. In Isaiah and Revelation, God is bowed down to with the voices, saying, Holy, holy, holy, continuously. It should frighten us to death if we are not his children, but it is the most wondrous news if we are his. God can be no other way and still be God!

God has always been and always will be holy. To begin a basic understanding of this, take the time right now to read a couple of passages of Scripture. They are Exodus 34:1–9, 29-35, and 33:18–23. These Scriptures will begin to illuminate your understanding of the holiness of God. Recognize that even being near his presence is standing on holy ground. In Exodus 3, Moses is standing before the burning bush, and God speaks to him as Scripture says,

And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

We must have the greatest awe, respect, and honor toward God, in humility. He is not made in our image; rather, he has created us in his image.

There are three things that God cannot do: lie, change, or allow sinners into heaven. God only speaks the truth. He would not be the God of the Bible if this were to change. We could not trust him. Our hope would have no reality, without truth to rely on. Scripture assures us that God does not change. He is the same from eternity past to eternity future. God will not allow sinners into his heavenly kingdom. What is sin? It is disobedience to God, to his Word. He does not classify sins into categories. The Bible does not say that God will overlook small sins. He calls sin a sin, whether small or great, and will not allow sinners into his holy presence. Remember this, it is the smallest sin that caused his Son Jesus to take our place on the cross of Calvary, to die the death that we deserved. To allow any sin to go unpunished would be to say that Jesus's death on the cross was not necessary.

God rules the universe; he is sovereign, supreme, and with ultimate power. Deuteronomy 10:17 tells us, For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: In his sovereignty, he is not surprised by anything that happens. He does not have to think of a secondary plan. Almighty God cannot be shaken! When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, he didn't have to stop and think up a plan B; he didn't say, Whoops, now what? He already knew what they would choose to do and had already begun the plan of his salvation before the foundations of the world were set in place.

He knows all—past, present, and future. He holds time in his hands. He created time for us but does not live within the boundaries of the time he created. In Exodus, when talking to Moses by the burning bush, Moses asks for God's name so he could tell Israel who will redeem them. His response was, I am, the great I am. I think that within these few words, it relates to us in its most simplistic form—that for God, time does not exist as we see it and that he just always is.

God tells us of his rightful place and how we must look to him. In Exodus 20:1–7, the Bible tells us,

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

He must be first, above all else, in our lives. We cannot put anyone or anything before him nor worship anything, including ourselves.

He is sure and true, a right and righteous God. In Deuteronomy 32:4, his Word says, He is the Rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. He is always just, and we can rest in the knowledge of this. He won't be one way today and different or the opposite tomorrow. God's Word is never given in vain, which means that what he says, he will do. It will never change; it will never go away. He reminds us of this in Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? In the truth of all of this, we will find that nothing is too hard for God simply because he is God! Genesis 18:14 describes it this way, Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. And God did exactly what he told Abraham he would do, and Sarah bore a son even when in man's thoughts it would have been impossible because Sarah and Abraham were well past child-bearing age.

There are no mysteries to God. There are no unknowns. There are no uh-ohs and looking for plans B and C like we, as humans, need to do. For his ways are perfect, they are always right, and they are always sure and steadfast. We can rest on the permanence of this.

While God is sovereign over everything, he does give us choice. We may choose him and reap the blessings, or we may reject him and suffer eternal consequences.

Even after writing these few things, I feel so incompetent in trying to explain our Holy God. The human mind is too small, too frail, and too limited to fully comprehend until we one day meet him and see him as he really is. In his presence, we will finally see and understand his true magnificence and will continually worship him as he truly deserves and do it with our whole hearts, wanting to exalt him every moment.

In Isaiah 55:8–11, we learn this about God.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

This reminds us that we cannot completely comprehend him while we are in this earthly form. Yet we can fully trust his every word. But think about this. Would we really want God to be just like us, fallible? Of course, not. He would not be a deity, sovereign, and all-powerful if we could understand every one of his ways.

He reigns as God alone, victorious. There is no other. He sits upon his heavenly throne, in majesty. Some, in their description of God, call him the Other because he is so far above us, so more divine, sacred, majestic, powerful, beyond our complete understanding, not human with our characteristics. There is no other description or word to explain him. For we are his creation, not his equal. Would we want him any other way? Think about that question for a while. In Daniel 4:34–35, we read,

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eye unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

Let us never doubt that God is in control, and his purpose will always be achieved. He says in Deuteronomy 32:39, See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. God is God alone!

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:29, For our God is a consuming fire. What kind of picture does that provide? It is a picture to remind us that we must hold him in the highest reverence. Take the time to read verses 25–29 of this chapter that tell us God's kingdom is an unmovable kingdom. In the end, he will not allow evil to win. Jesus conquered death and is the victor.

In Scripture, there are many names for God that tell us so much more about him. Some of them include the following:

Elohim—The Mighty One, Judge, Creator, God

Jehovah—The Lord

El Shaddai—All-Sufficient One, Lord God Almighty

Adonai—Powerful Ruler, Master

Yahweh—Lord Jehovah

Jehovah Jireh—The Lord will provide

Jehovah Rapha—The Lord is my healer

Jehovah Nissi—The Lord is my banner

Jehovah Makadesh—The Lord Who Sanctifies You

Jehovah Tsidkenu—The Lord Our Righteousness

Jehovah Shalom—The Lord is peace

Jehovah Raah—The Lord is my shepherd

Jehovah Shammah—The Lord is there

El Elyon—The Most High God

Jehovah Sabaoth—The Lord of Hosts

This is a magnificent list of names that give us such a beautiful picture of God. God has always been, is, and always will be the same. As mentioned earlier, Malachi 3:6 tells us, "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Despite who we are, despite what we do, he remains the same always. His love remains the same. His mercy remains the same. His judgment remains the same. Even when we talk about God's wrath, it is a pure, holy wrath. It is not like ours that changes as the wind blows. His wrath is focused on sin. So we need never be surprised.

In understanding what his word tells us about him, we must grasp the concept of the Triune God. Although this word never appears in Scripture, the meaning of this word is throughout Scripture. God is One yet three—God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. We must accept Jesus Christ as Lord. We cannot know God without knowing Jesus. There is utter bliss in knowing the Lord! Jesus is the King the world needs but rejects. We must believe him, believe his word, that Jesus truly is the Son of God. In John 6:67–69, we are told, "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living