I Hate My Gift

James 1: 17 tells us that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." But what happens when the gift that came from above begins to annoy you or become a burden in your life?  What do you do then?  It is possible for God to withdraw His grace and presence from our work or ministry when we begin to hate His gifts.  The blessings which we have grown to hate can begin to dry up and leave us in a position of  crying out to God for His grace and favor once again.

In this podcast, LaToya discusses three mindset shifts to get us back on track to appreciate God's blessings and give Him all the glory for what He has done in our lives.

Transcript

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Yes. Let's go ahead and get started with this podcast. Friends, I have to say that this one came directly from my own story, my own life, actually, a recent happening with me. I had to repent. I had to go to God right away. My husband said, you know, he is a forgiven God. He will forgive you. Just go to him and tell him that you messed up, that you were wrong in your thinking, you were wrong in your ways, and he will forgive you. Hey friends. 

I'm Latoya McBean Pompy, a wife, entrepreneur, nonprofit founder, attorney, and a disciple of Jesus Christ. Join me for another episode of I Am Wonderful to explore biblical truths from God's word, to strengthen us in our Christian faith and help us uncover the wonders that God has poured into us for others. 

James one 17 tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from above. And it says this specifically. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turn in every good gift, and every perfect gift comes from above. But what happens when that gift that came from above begins to annoy you? That gift which came from above seems like a burden to you. Now, that gift, which is good and it came from above, is something that you don't like anymore. Okay? What do you do then? And guys, like I said in the intro, this is the very situation that I was in just recently. It is possible for what you've prayed for that particular blessing to then become a problem in your life. At least you see it as a problem. 

It really isn't. But in your mind, you're thinking, I don't like this anymore. This is a problem I need, I've got to move past this. I need something else. I want something different. And so here's how it happened and how it showed up in my life. Recently, I'm running a business and I pray, oh, Lord, bless us, bless the work that we're doing. Bless the works of our hands, send us clients, help us to grow, help us to grow, help us to grow. And then when we started growing now and he started sending us business, there are aspects of it that I don't really like. I don't really like doing a lot of administrative work. I learned that about myself. As the business grew. I learned that I hate the paperwork. I hate doing all this administrative stuff. I hate dealing with the things that a CEO or a manager of a company has to deal with. 

HR stuff, audits this and that, compliance issues, regulations and all these things, guys, I said, oh my God, this is awful. I hate this. I hate this. I dreaded doing administrative work, dreaded it. And of course, we have the help to do certain things, but I still have to do a lot of administrative work. And I started to complain about it. My mindset was off. Then there were other aspects of the business that I also didn't like, and I dreaded it. And my mindset was like, oh God, I have to go through this again. I have to deal with this issue again. Oh my God, oh my God, I don't like this. I don't like that. I don't like this. And I really started to complain a lot about what I just didn't like. And it took a change from the Lord to help me, or a word from the Lord to help me to realize that I've better get my act together. 

Because what's happening is a blessing from the Lord. It is a gift from God. It is a perfect gift from God, and I need to get my act together and get my mindset together and give him the glory. And yes, there might be aspects that I don't like, but deal with it, right? Push through until the change comes, right? If a change needs to come, it will come push through with the right attitude and the right mindset. And so I had to repent because I also saw that as I was complaining that the grace of God started to feel distant. It started, things started to feel harder than they used to feel because I realized that with me complaining and my mindset was all wrong, I was all off that God said, okay, well, I'm going to ease up a little bit here and I'm going to see how you could handle this on your own, because I was in this with you. 

I bless the works of your hands. I am part of this. I'm part of it because you made me part of this and you've opened it up to me to be part of and I'm part of it. But here you are complaining and whining and being disgruntled, and your attitude is way off. Your mindset is way wrong. And so now I'm going to show you what it feels like when my grace is not fully in it, when my present is not fully there, things can dry up very easily. Just like that dry up, things can get harder. It could feel like a struggle. It could feel like, whoa, something's missing here. And what's missing here is the grace of God and the presence of God in this endeavor. So I repented that night. I trust the Lord that as I move forward with a better mindset, a better attitude, that things can be different in the days ahead. 

And I believe that his grace is restored, his grace is restored. So James tells us that God gives good gifts to his children. Every good gift. Good. From the standpoint of, and I had looked this up before the podcast, but good from the standpoint of it's going to lead to there's something beneficial to you that is in this thing that God had put on your lap, okay? It's going to benefit you in some way, and of course it benefits others as well, but it will benefit you in the end. And then when it's a perfect gift, it's complete, it's whole. He brings you something or gives you something that is really complete, right? God doesn't like to do things in, he doesn't have steps, so to speak, right? He doesn't just give you a little bit here. Yeah, sometimes it depends on the circumstances. Certainly he will give you a little bit here and a little bit there to see how faithful you are with that little, and then he will increase it and give you more over time when he could trust you with it. 

But generally speaking, he gives us that perfect whole complete gift, gift, undeserved, unearned. It's a gift because he is full of grace. Jesus Christ came full of grace and truth full. So out of God's fullness of his grace, he gives, he has to give because he is a giver. There are so many grace, gifts and goodness in God, and he just wants to share it with his children. And so he's given us these good gifts. He's given us these perfect, complete and whole gifts, and it's from above. It's from him. And we've got to recognize that it is from him, because the moment we stop recognizing that this is a gift from him, the moment we lose perspective and the moment we realize that, whoa, God's presence isn't with me anymore with this endeavor. So the first thing that I want you to think about is watch your attitude. 

Watch your mindset. What are you thinking about that's driving your attitude? This negative attitude or negative feeling towards this blessing that you've prayed for and that you have, and that maybe it's growing and more responsibilities are on your plate and you're feeling more pressure, and that pressure is leading to a negative mindset. What is going on in your mind? Think about, take time to think about what have I been thinking about lately? What is going on in my mind that is causing me to feel this level of disgruntledness, this bitterness, this feelings of, oh my God, I can't stand this anymore. And because it can't get to that point with your blessing, believe it or not, with your blessing, it can get to the point where you really, really hate it. And you've got to be careful about that because if God has given you a gift and then for you to throw it back in his face with bitterness, anger, hatred, it really, really gets to him. 

I believe it really gets to him. It is hurtful. It is hurtful. If someone gives you a gift and you reject it, or you throw it away, or you put it in the back of your closet and you never wear it, you never use it, and they come to know that you've just done that to their gift. It is very, very, very hurtful. So watch your mindset and consider your attitude, because that attitude could very well be driving the grace and presence of God out of your life, out of that endeavor, out of that business, out of that relationship, and you want God's presence on everything that you're doing. It is the most critical asset that we as Christians have. So watch the attitude. Number two, pray for what you want instead of dreading it. I am going into a meeting. I'm like, okay, another meeting. 

Well, yeah, another meeting, okay, another meeting. Don't dread it. Be optimistic about the work that you have to do, right? Because it is the blessing of the Lord that makes us rich, okay? It is the blessing of the Lord that makes us rich. So remember that prayer changes things, and if you go to God and you say, you know, father, there's this aspect of the blessing that it's challenging for me. Help me with my attitude and my emotions towards it. Help me to feel more upbeat and optimistic about it and shed some grace on me in this area. I need some grace. I need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be exceedingly great towards me at this time, for this reason, in this moment. That's what I need, and I need you to help me to not dread this thing and to change my attitude. 

Lord, I need your help. And he is a very present help in the time of trouble. So go to him. He will help you. Then the other thing is this, friends, the third thing that I want to talk about is that you've got to be faithful with the blessing. Oftentimes, we think about the fact that we've got to be faithful in the little. If you're faithful in the little, God will give you more, right? As I've said earlier. But what about being faithful in the abundance? What about when there is an abundance and you have those blessings flowing in and it's causing you to feel more responsibility? There's a level of responsibility and more testing, more battles, more obstacles you have to go through as you grow, as you mature into certain aspects of your life, your ministry, your work, your business. It's going to cause you to feel more pressure, but the blessing is there, and you've got to be faithful with it. 

We've got to, in order to maintain the blessing, we need to be faithful with it until God says it's over and I'm changing course. Okay? You've got to remain faithful until God says, I'm finished with that. Now I'm going to move you to the next thing and be faithful with the blessing, the abundance that is on your plate right now. So that until God says, okay, I'm shifting you away from that, but just be faithful in it Until I'm ready to shift, be faithful. Until I'm ready to say, let's get this moving. Let's, let's expand to a different area, or let someone else do it right? God can say that to you. God can allow another person to just come in and take over and then shift you to something entirely different. He's known for that. So be faithful, not just in the little, but be faithful with the blessing. Be faithful in abundance, and remember that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turn in.