The Great Gift Exchange

Christmas is over!  One of the news items on Boxing Day (apart from the sales), is how many unwanted gifts are put up for exchange on various internet sites!  An incredible number of gifts given yet unwanted and now up for grabs for the bargain hunters, and people hardly blink an eye at this.  Many of the gifts are expensive electronics pieces.  I'm sure the customer service counters at shops have also been busy handling exchanges.

It makes me think about why these gifts are unwanted.  We have all been in the position, I'm sure, of not knowing what to give.  Some people in our family are incredibly good gift buyers but I am not one of them.  I love to give but I am not observant enough to know what people need and like. Charity gifts have become a very practical and easy way out of that bind, while blessing the needy.  

Many people put a lot of thought into gift buying and others just 'throw money at it'.  The latter is probably where a lot of the unwanted gift syndrome occurs.  Also it's very difficult to buy a gift for someone who has everything.

This great gift exchange got me thinking about a different kind of exchange that God offers to those who will receive the greatest gift of all.....the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was a very costly gift but did not involve money.  It was a life laid down to bring reconciliation between sinful man and a perfect God.  Followers of Jesus are offered these things:

He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted

and to proclaim that captives will be released

and prisoners will be freed. 

He has sent me to tell those who mourn

that the time of the LORD’s favor has come, 

and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.

To all who mourn in Israel, 

he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,

a joyous blessing instead of mourning,

festive praise instead of despair.....

                                                                        Isaiah 61:1-3

That looks like a great exchange to me....

if  you have a broken heart you can find comfort in Jesus

if you feel you are caught in some kind of prison he 

offers you freedom

if grief has overtaken you he brings hope for a great future

for the ashes of disappointment he will give you beauty and peace

he can turn your mourning into praise.

Receiving the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is the best gift you could ever receive, and if you have already done that make sure you walk in all the benefits that go with that gift. Leave behind all that is negative and destructive in your life as we say goodbye to 2018. Enter fully into the abundant (full to overflowing) life that he has promised you. 

Prayer:  Father God, thank you for the good things I have learnt this year, help me to remember them but please help me to let go of the things that hold me back from fully receiving the blessing of the abundant life you offer.  As I enter 2019 may I more truly receive all that you offer me.  I ask in the name of Jesus Christ who died to give me life. Amen