Handful Of Cookies




I walked up to my car a few years ago with a handful of cookies and I said to my kids, “what do you say?” If I remember correctly my youngest daughter was 3 years old, she was so exited and you could see it in her face trying to think of the right word. All of the sudden like she was on a race to say the right word before her sisters she yelled out, “Mine!”
This is one of those stories that gets retold and if you knew my daughter you would not be surprised by this story as it fits her personality; she is quick in word and deed.
I have often thought about this story in light of our relationship with God. It says in the Bible (Psalm 50:10) that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and we also know that it says in James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Jesus said in John 15:8: “It is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit.”
Does this give us license to grab and say “MINE”?
It says in Proverbs 23:7 “As a man sees himself, so is he.” Let’s take it a step further and say how we see God is what we receive in our relationship with God.
Do we see God as a task master, caring more about what you do than he cares for you? Certainly not. Sometimes we may know the right answer, but somewhere deep in our hearts we are still trying to get approval and trying to work hard enough to get the free gift.
Gifts have to be received, not grabbed, and the gift of salvation is free... “So that no man can boast”. John 3:16,17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Like salvation, God’s day to day provision has to be received as a gift, not grabbed, not worked for, but received. Like I said earlier how we see God is how receive from God. Do we see a God that is waiting for us to measure up to a standard, or do we think that we have to grab the blessing before it sprouts wings and flies away.
God is a God who blesses his people with salvation, health, provision, wisdom, sound mind, family. We all have a place and a belonging in the family of God. God does not put a cap on how much we receive from him, but we do, and that has to do with our belief of God or our own sin.
Do we see God with all we need in his hands where all we need to do is receive? We are not worthy of the gifts that he gives, and that is why all we can do is say, “Please, Lord Jesus”.