You already HAVE it!!!

About a week ago, I went to the ATM machine (bankomat) here in Hungary and put my Hungarian card in the machine with the hopes of withdrawing money. The message I received said that my card had expired and I needed to check with my banking institution. I looked at the date, and duh, yes, it had expired.

So, I decided to try to find a time to go in....bank hours here are rather non-conducive to working people...closing at 3 or 4 in the afternoon; so today, I finally went in. When the woman pulled up my information, she said that my new card had already been mailed to my home address here in Szeged! I was caught off-guard a bit, but then I remembered that in the past 3 weeks, I've not taken the time to go through my mail which arrived during the summer (my neighbor had paid all the bills).

So, I go home, look through all the mail, and lo and behold, there is my shiny new bank card, good til 2008!! I already had the card, right here, in my house, available to me, free of charge and all that is in my bank account was already available to me...but I didn't know it nor did I access it.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, for the past couple of years, I've been growing a lot in my understanding of God and spiritual gifts. In Colossians 1:19 it says that ALL the fullness of the Father dwells in the Son, Jesus Christ. ALL the fullness...everything!!! So, logically, if Christ dwells in us by faith, then we have Christ IN us through the Holy Spirit, which means that all the fullness of the Father dwells in us!!! He's given us EVERYTHING!!! All gifts are available to us because HE is IN us in the Holy Spirit!!! But how often do we "leave the gifts in the envelope on the shelf"...or do we even realize that because Christ dwells in us, every gift also dwells in us?

For me to naively say that I don't have my card, or my card is better left on the shelf and I will try to get money other ways is simply silly. For us to say that God has not poured out His fullness into Jesus, and thus into us who know Him as Lord and Savior, or to put a limit on what God wants to do in and through us is also just simply silly!

Lord, draw out of me all the gifts that You wish to make use of in my corner of the world, and beyond, for Your glory...I put no limits on You, and I thank you that I already have all that I need: Your Spirit living in me!