What gifts has God given you?
December 4-8, 2023 | Always Peachy Devotionals | God's Gifts Week 1
Christmas is one of the most stressful times of year.
Have you noticed that? It’s not just the weather making travel difficult. It’s not just family expectations and social expectations and church events and a jam-packed schedule. It’s the gifts.
I love giving people gifts. I love to see their faces light up when they open shiny wrapping paper and find that unexpected thing they needed but didn’t know they wanted.
The difficulty and stress of gift-giving for me? It’s keeping track of what gifts I’ve been given so I can be adequately grateful. I’m always afraid that I can’t communicate my gratitude well enough. When someone goes out of their way to give me a gift—no matter how small—it touches my heart so deeply. I don’t really have words to express what it means.
I understand the stress and strain of shopping and investing time and money in another person. So for someone to do that for me? It doesn’t matter what the gift is. The act of giving me anything is astonishing, and I always want to make sure I acknowledge everything I’m given.
So here’s a question that rocked me the other day: What gifts has God given me?
You know, I’m always so focused on making sure the people in my life know how grateful I am, but how often do I give God that same courtesy? Sure, I thank Him every day for what He’s doing, but frequently that gratitude turns into a checklist. Or I lump it all into one big pile and say “Thanks for the blessings, God!”
Now that’s not bad. But is that really demonstrating gratitude for all that God has given me? Frankly, have I even taken time to acknowledge what He’s given me?
So as we start this study of gifts, that’s where I wanted to begin. What are the gifts God has given us? Have we ever taken time to think about it? Let me encourage you to start a journal or make notes in a notebook about everything you realize that God has given you. There’s more than you can write down. But for this week, we’re just going to focus on the basics:
Dec 4 - Gift of Salvation (Romans 6:23)
Dec 5 - Gift of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17)
Dec 6 - Gifts of the Spirit (Romans 12:6-8)
Dec 7 - Gift of Nature (Isaiah 45:18)
Dec 8 - Gift of Each Other (Romans 15:5-7)
I mean, how often do we thank God for saving us? If you’ve been following Jesus for more than 30 years, I bet it doesn’t come naturally. Some gifts we just take for granted, and we shouldn’t.
So let’s get intentional about this. Let’s thank God for the gifts He’s given us, even if they’re things that feel mundane or everyday. Because even the most “mundane” gift on the list of what God has given us is impossible for us to accomplish. We are walking miracles. Let’s never forget what God has given us.
God loves to give us gifts, and remembering that is what led me to our memory verse for this week, Ephesians 2:8.
Salvation.
Restoration.
Peace.
How can you even summarize what God’s Salvation is? How can you boil it down to its most basic elements? We’ll talk more about it tomorrow, but what blows my mind every time is that God’s Salvation is a gift. Unmerited. Unearned. Undeserved. Free.
Salvation cost God everything so it could cost us nothing. As we’ve said before, He is the only God who provides what He requires.
None of us can brag about a gift we’ve been given because true gifts can’t be earned. But we can brag all day about the One who gave it to us.
Never take God’s gifts for granted.
Love you, guys.
Amy
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