You love a good steak. Your best friend knows this, and on your birthday, he stops at the meat market and buys you two of the fattest, juiciest, best cuts of meat you’ve ever seen. When he drops them off, you thank him and stick them in the refrigerator. Two weeks later, the steaks are still in the meat drawer.

Not likely!

You bought raffle tickets at a fundraiser, hoping for the grand prize: an all-expense paid getaway at Pebble Beach Golf Resort, courses most golfers can only dream of playing. But it’s your lucky day, and you hold the winning ticket! A month later, you settle into the resort, but somehow never get around to playing those two free rounds on the famous (and expensive) fairways along the ocean.

Ridiculous!

A rich uncle dies (OK, let’s change this cliché and make it a rich aunt) — A VERY rich aunt dies and leaves you her mountain home and 3,000 acres in Colorado. Wow. Isn’t that exciting? But you never make the trip to check out your inheritance, the house sits unused, and you do nothing with the property, except pay taxes on it.

Unbelievable!

Who would neglect to do such things? Whether it’s wasting a free and desirable gift or ignoring a lavish inheritance, what kind of person would not take advantage of such opportunities and endowments?

Me. You. Too often.

Some very simple statements in Scripture convict me —

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.        The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ.

…we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it.

He created us in His own image. But we went our own way and ended up looking very … un-God-like.

So He made a way to bring us back to Himself; and when we chose that way, He adopted us, claimed us as His children, and gave us new lives that included an inheritance of hope, riches, and power.

How exciting! What a story!

It’s your story, child of God.

But where’s your story line going right now? Are you ignoring the new life and the inheritance that are now yours?

Or are you receiving, enjoying, and living the gift?

Part 2 tomorrow — Some really deep (and amazing) stuff about the gift.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17,18; 6:1 (NLT)