What You Have Been Given
Depending on the Bible translation you have there is an interesting turn of words for the gospel. The more familiar is without cost you have been given, without cost you should receive. In other translations it might read you have been given gifts; freely should you gift others. Both mean about the same. Think of Joseph who was sold into slavery. Being sold into slavery is hardly considered a gift but it was God’s plan to get Joseph into Egypt where his other gifts would one day save a starving world.
We have this tendency to think everything bad that happens to us is of no good. Amid working our way through our troubles, we are more focused upon ourselves and what we want. If for a moment, could we stop looking inward but see what is happening around us we might easier see the hand of God preparing us for something far greater. The Church prepares us for these occasions. It is called prayer and fasting. Keep focused on God in our lives keeps us aware of how He is working in us and through us. Fasting teaches how to give without cost. We focus on spiritual things, not material goods of this world.
Too often we think of what we want. Today think of what you have been given.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen