Monday, February 25, 2013

He Gives with an Open Hand

It is well for us that God's bounty and kindness are not so scanty as our is to our fellow creatures.  In our communication one with another, we soon think we have done enough, that we have done our share; we are ready to be careful not to do too much.  We are ready to excuse ourselves from giving and doing for one another.  When we give something liberally, or do any considerable matter for another person, it looks big in our eyes and we are ready to think that our kindness has proceeded to a great extent.  We are ready to soon be weary of liberality to others.  How well it is for us that it is not so with God, who is never weary nor wanting in doing us good.  He gives us richly all things to enjoy.  His bounty to us is like a river that is full of water: always flowing and never weary of overflowing its banks.  Every day He gives to us with an open hand, and bestows blessings upon us of an innumerable kind and in a vast variety.  He thinks nothing is too much for us, who has given us more than if He had given us the whole world, in that He has given us His own Son, a person of infinite glory, a Person infinitely dear to Him, who is infinitely His delight and is of the same nature as Himself.  In His Son, He gives us His grace, and Holy Spirit.  He gives us Himself and makes us to inherit a kingdom.  He gives us the possession of all things.  He gives us infinite riches and eternal glory and blessedness.  He gives us as much riches and blessedness as our appetites can have, let us extend our desires as far as we will.  And He gives us as much as we can enjoy, and that to all eternity.  God sets no bounds to His bounty, and nothing is too much to bestow.

--Jonathan Edwards
From 'It Is Well for Us That God is Not as We Are'

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