Thought for the day
Admit it, you've been there (and you may be there again in just a few days). You receive a gift that makes you grimace -- an orange tie with purple stripes, perhaps, or a battery-operated radish peeler. You can't be impolite and say, "I don't like it. I want to exchange it." So what do you say?
Fortunately someone has come up with "The Top Ten Things to Say About a Christmas Gift You Don't Like":
10. Hey! Now there's a gift!
9. Well, well, well ...
8. What a shame! If I hadn't recently shot up 4 sizes, this would've fit.
7. This is perfect for wearing around the basement.
6. I hope this never catches fire! It is fire season though. There are lots of unexplained fires.
5. If the dog buries it, I'll be furious!
4. I love it -- but I fear the jealousy it will inspire.
3. Sadly, tomorrow I enter the Federal Witness Protection Program.
2. To think -- I got this the year I vowed to give all my gifts to charity.
1. "I really don't deserve this.
"Whatever you say, you know you'll be standing in line at Wal-Mart for hours with everyone else who received gifts that were just as horrible.
There's a beautiful story in 2 Corinthians 8 about a gift that the churches of Macedonia gave to Paul to help out needy Christians in Jerusalem. It was a gift that Paul was reluctant to receive. Not because there was anything wrong with it. Quite the opposite -- it was a generous gift. Perhaps too generous. The Christians who gave it were not at all wealthy, so the gift seemed excessive.
"For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints." (2 Cor. 8:3-4)The reason that their gift was so generous and so special, though, was because of another gift they had given: "And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God." (2 Cor. 8:5)
Want to give a gift that will never need to be exchanged? Give yourself wholeheartedly to the Lord. It's certain to be exactly what He wants this year!
Verses
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things prove advantageous for their true good to those who love God, that is, to those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 4:20-21
He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
Psalm 147:4
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
Romans 8:31
To all this there is a corollary. If God is for us, who or what can possibly be against us?
Prayer
Father, we think of Rahab’s obedience in hanging the scarlet cord from the window of her home which brought safety and deliverance for her and all her household. It would seem that the scarlet cord is symbolic of the blood of the Passover lamb that was posted on the houses of the Israelites during their mighty deliverance from captivity in Egypt. And, on the personal level, when we receive Jesus as our Savior we post His sinless blood on the doors of our hearts so that we are freed from the captivity of Satan’s tyranny. We are protected from our deserved judgment for sins, because Your Son, Jesus, bore our sins for us. Thank You for making provision for us just as the spies made provision for Rahab. But even greater is that Your provision for salvation is not just for this life but for all eternity. We give You thanks in Jesus name. Amen.
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