Devotionals

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I used to visit my great-grandmother quite a bit as a teenager. On a few occasions I slept over by her. She would give me little jobs to do around her house. She was 92 years old and lived with Reene, her dog, who was her only companion during the week.
My great-grandmother was special to me. She taught me a lot of life lessons before she died, like: the value of hard work, honesty, moderation and the Bible, just to name a few.

She was a poor lady when it came to material things, but she was rich in love. I remember visiting her after school some days, but I visited her mostly on Saturdays. She would offer me a meal, which she cooked herself. When I was leaving she would offer me bus fare. Sometimes she came up short on the bus fare but I would simply accept the fare and walk home without bringing it to her attention. Everything that she gave to me was precious to me because she had so little. Anything that she gave to me was a sacrifice.

There are at least three ways in which we can determine the value of a gift. These are: who gave it to us, how much it cost, and how much it benefits us. We may appreciate a brand new car from our parents, we may be grateful to someone for purchasing a book or two for us that we needed for a class, we may be happy about someone purchasing a few articles of clothing from a popular store for us, we may be appreciative to someone who helped us to realize that where we are does not have to determine where we can end up, but there is still something more important than all of these things.

God’s gift surpasses any gift that man can give. First of all, God is in control of the entire universe so anything that He gives to us is worth accepting simply because of who He is. The Bible says that God is love, so this implies that what He gives to us is for our benefit.

Secondly, The gift that God gave to us was of the highest value. In order to seal the gift of salvation Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had to die in our place. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”(John 3:16). Salvation came at the cost of the life of Jesus Christ so it is no cheap gift. The gift of salvation not only allows us to have a better life here on earth but it also gives us eternal life by accepting it.

I do not remember the source of this story but I heard it somewhere and it made me think about how we can have a limited idea of a gift. A wealthy man wanted to give a poor man a gift for something good that he had done for him. Little did the poor man know that he had helped a very wealthy man. The wealthy man somehow found out that the man who helped him liked golf and asked him “Would you like a golf club?” The man responded with a casual yes. In the poor man’s mind he expected a golf club that he could play golf with. An article of mail was sent to the poor man’s house containing a deed for a Golf Club. The gift was so much greater than what he had in mind.

God’s gift is so much more than what we have in mind. His gift benefits us in this life and the life to come. God’s love for us is greater than the love that anyone else has for us.
His gift is available to all, but because it is available it does not mean that all have it. The gift of God must be accepted. God does not force His gift on us; He gives us a choice. The forgiveness of sins is available upon request for any who will sincerely repent. Will you accept God’s gift or do you think that it is not worth accepting?

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