Today's Devotional
December 26, 2006
Subject: Rejected Gifts
Romans 11:29 - "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
If the day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the most busy in stores, then this would have to rank right up there as the second or third busiest. Today is the day after Christmas and not only do you have millions of people in stores trying to take advantage of all of the discounted items that stores are trying to get rid of, but you've also got others in stores taking back gifts they received that they didn't like.
So what do you do with gifts you don't like? How would you feel if you gave someone a gift and found out that they traded it in for something else? Pondering these questions really makes us think about our motives in gift-giving.
What is your motive in gift-giving? Surely we want to please the recipient of the gift, but isn't the giving of gifts supposed to be an expression of our hearts? If we are sincere in the giving then we must know that it could also be rejected and this should not change our hearts. It didn't change the Father's.
See God sent the perfect Gift. He knew that it would be rejected by many. Nevertheless, He kept right on loving those who received the Gift as well as those who rejected the Gift. As the verse above says, God didn't tie His gift-giving to the way the recipient's felt about it. He simply gave His Son as an indicator of His great love for us.
Today if you have rejected one of your Christmas gifts, see the love that came from the gift-giver and today if someone rejected your gift, continue to love like the Father. If you can't, then maybe your motives were wrong in the first place.
