Devotion #2: The Best Gift
My sister and I love picking out gifts for each other for birthdays and Christmas. We love it so much that over the years, it has now become an unspoken competition of who can give the other the best gift. Obviously, both of us are always exceedingly grateful for any gift from each other, but I do personally tend to feel really guilty when her gift to me is better than my gift to her. It really is a silly, meaningless competition, but we truly take it to heart. All I want every year is to give her the best gift I possibly can because I love her, and I want to repay her for all the love and joy she brings to my life. Imagine you were given a gift that was so extravagant and valuable that you would never be able to repay the person back for that gift, no matter how hard you tried. How would you respond to such an incredible gift?
This is just like the gift God has given us. God, through Jesus, granted us, wicked sinners, eternal life with Him and all we have to do to receive this gift is confess and believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. How on Earth can we even begin to repay God for such a gift?
Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Paul is calling us to give ourselves to God not out of obligation but out of gratitude and worship in response to His great mercy. Offering yourself as a “living sacrifice” to God does not just mean offering your Sunday mornings or your nightly prayer time to God. This means offering every part of yourself to God, including your work, relationships, daily decisions, and your body. Paul is calling you to surrender all of yourself to God to use for His glory every day. This surrender should be a continuous act of worship to God every day in your life where you surrender all plans and choices for the day to God’s great plan and seek to glorify Him in all that you do.
We will never be able to fully repay God for the great gift He has given us, but what we can do is respond with a life of worship and gratitude toward Him, in which we strive to live every moment, every second for His glory and for His plans. His plans are far greater than we can know. I want to encourage you to take some time right now to thank God for the great gift we have in Him and ask Him to help you surrender to His glory today.
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17