“Make a joyful shot to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.” Psalm 100:1-5

Most people know God as the gift giver of salvation, but how about just being an all around giver of gifts? Some people call those gifts blessings but sometimes, the things God gives me and others doesn’t fit into the category of blessings. A blessing is God’s favor and protection while a gift is a thing given willingly by someone without payment. God loves to give His children gifts; salvation is the main one most are familiar with but there are so many others God gives to His children that are tailored to each of our wants and needs.

             The main thing that spurred me to write this blog is my secret yearning for music that sounded like trap rap but was all about Jesus. I sometimes had trouble stomaching the words to trap rap when I was lost in sin and the secular music scene but always got down with listening to trap rap. Ever since I met God, it is impossible for me to listen to trap rap without hearing the evil pouring out of the lyrics and the demonic influence behind them. It definitely hurts my spiritual ears, but I always really liked the beat behind trap rap and had been subconsciously praying to come across a Christian rapper that had a trap rap beat and came across that individual today as I was randomly skimming YouTube. Isaiah Ramos was doing a testimony on Delafe Testimonies on YouTube and I looked up his band name “MTM Isaiah” and the moment I started listening, knew it was God that had set up this divine encounter! It wasn’t quite as rough of a beat as trap rap but it had some decent bass and growing up around rap and dub step, I have always had a thing about listening to deep bass in music and God delivered on my unintentional request.

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart, Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.” Psalm 37:4:5

God has also given me a certain set of clouds as a gift when I am having a rough morning or a rough day. He will put cirrocumulus clouds right above my house or wherever I am at the time. I’ve noticed that they are literally right above my head and nowhere else in the sky and they usually happen on a morning when I need to know He’s right there or if I’m having a rough time. I have always likened them to Him being a gentleman and sending me flowers to let me know He cares, except the flowers are clouds! It’s incredible because like someone giving me lilies, my favorite flowers, God gives me cirrocumulus clouds, the clouds that look like pebbles sprinkled across the sky. It always puts a smile on my face. He is such an amazing and thoughtful God!

       Another thing that God has given me that most people can probably relate to is a group of friends who are actually there for me and care for me unlike the other friends I used to have. Don’t get me wrong, I had like 2 best friends before I knew Jesus but they moved away and we lost touch as the years went by but for the most part, my other “friends” were out for themselves and never really cared anything about me. As I think about it, I still have trouble reaching out to friends nowadays because of the major hurts and hang ups my previous acquaintances put me through. Sometimes I feel like I am getting rejected from time to time and no one reaches out but I also feel like I’m partly to blame for that too because of the walls I put up but I know God is still working on me about this. Also, I will occasionally get a gentle nudging to reach out to my friends, something I’m pretty sure is the Holy Spirit’s prompting.        

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6

I could go on and on about all the amazing things God has done for me but I just wanted to give some reassurance and some confirmation for those who walk with God and think it pretty cool that these “random” gifts happen from time to time, or at least to give credit where credit is due when they don’t correlate that these pleasant “coincidences” are from their heavenly Father. He is a God who absolutely loves seeing His children smile and it is something He has told me Himself. So, the next time something really good happens to you and it’s something you’ve been thinking about but haven’t asked God for, know it’s from Him and give thanks to Him for He is such a good, good Father!