Would you reject a free gift?

I’ll be honest: as a content-creator, it can be hard for me when I put something out there to the world for free, and it seems like no one is picking it up.  Perhaps you know this feeling too: maybe you baked cookies for the office that went uneaten, or shared a song you wrote that went unplayed, or gave an invitation to treat someone to coffee that went unaccepted.

“I’m offering them a free gift… why won’t they take it?”

In early 2020, my family joined two others from Norway for an Outreach in the States.  Towards the end of our time with YWAM Chico, we began praying about how to use the remaining funds, and God spoke through the children to reveal the exact location and ministry: we posted up outside a restaurant and coffee shop in a strip mall and offered to pay for people’s purchases.

We encountered a surprising thing: many people rejected the free meal and coffee.

As missionaries on tight budgets, we would have been thrilled to have our tabs unexpectedly covered; yet one after one, people said “no” to our offer.

There were no strings attached, no bait-and-switch tactic to evangelize; we were literally just paying their bills.  Yet a surprising number of people found reason to reject our free gift.  Some said, “save it for someone who needs it more,” even though our gift wasn’t needs based, but for everyone.  Some, understandably, didn’t trust us, even though we were simply running our card instead of theirs.  Some just didn’t want to be bothered.

In the end, so many people missed a blessing.

Now, long-time Christians may already assume where this is going: “Ahha!  He’s going to transition into talking about Salvation, the ‘free gift of God’, and how people can easily miss it.”  That is, for sure, a valid direction, and God has indeed offered the free gift of eternal life for those willing to accept it.

I want to hit at something smaller, something more easily missed.

If we had told people at that strip mall, “Hey, we’d like to pay off your car or home,” we may have seen a higher success rate; a $5 latte is easier to turn down.  For those of us who are believers, we have jumped at the incredible gift of eternal life, but may be daily turning down the smaller gifts of God.

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Matthew 7:9-11

The “good gift” offered by the father was a piece of bread or fish; it was a common meal.

We tend to assume the good gifts from heaven are miraculous things, but what if they are so commonplace that we miss — or reject — them?

What if we are so focused on the big things we want from God that we miss the simple ways He is expressing love, provision, and protection?  What if those coincidences and convenient moments we shrug off are actually intentional gifts from our heavenly Father?  Afterall, “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

God is constantly giving into our lives, and we are frequently unaware. How can we address this?

REMEMBER

We can begin my making every moment an opportunity to remember that God is a good Father who gives good gifts; this includes the moments we are longing for something, and the moments we aren’t.  The latter are perhaps the hardest; we think of God when we need him, but less so when we think we are fine.  What might change if in the moments we aren’t looking for a gift we recall “God is with me always… so He may be showing love right now”?  How might our perception of Him shift if we don’t only expect the extravagant, but the mundane?

We have a tendency to apply to ourselves or the course of life that which is actually from God, which scripture calls out often:

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”  But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 8:17-18

Not a single moment of life is devoid of God, so we should work to remember Him in every moment.

RECEIVE

It’s one thing to be aware of a gift, an entirely different thing to receive it.  As we stood outside the stores, many were fully aware of what we were offering, but chose to reject the gift.  While we may think we would never do this to God, scripture is filled with examples of the contrary.  Most glaring is the Israelites in the wilderness, who frequently rejected God’s provision:

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.  But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
Numbers 11:4-6

It’s entirely possible — I daresay likely — that God is currently providing a gift that you are resisting or rejecting, because it’s not the gift you want… or better put, the gift you think you want.  The Israelites were offered miracle bread, but disregarded it by comparing it to false memories of something better; after-all, their time in Egypt was marked by oppressive enslavement, not all you can eat buffets.  God will not force His gifts, so it’s on us to be honest about our reception.

REJOICE

Perhaps you’ve acknowledged God is giving good gifts — great and small — and perhaps you’ve received them, but if you stop there you’ve missed the point.  When I give gifts to my children, I am not trying to be a vending machine or complete a transaction: I am pursuing relationship.  I give not because I like to expend money, but love; I want them to feel joy and know that the gift is but an example of the greater joy found in our connection.

So it is with God.  He does not give gifts because He is an eternal vending machine — in fact, He knows we actually don’t need anything but Him — and instead gives as an expression of His love, which is unfailing and unending.  This nature of His love means it exists and is exuded in every situation, so the opportunity for us is to rejoice, regardless if we understand the gift:

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18

In all circumstances.  This is God’s will not because He wants credit or compliance, but because He knows this is the path to true contentment and full life.

RELATIONSHIP

In other words: He gives gifts not to fix our situations, but to create innumerable pathways to Him.

Every gift, miraculous or mundane, is on opportunity for us to remember who He is, receive what He is offering, rejoice in His goodness, and thus draw deeper and deeper into relationship with Him.  HE is the gift.  He is offering these pathways to each of you reading this — “whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:12) — because He loves you and wants you to know the fullness of that love.

It’s a free gift; what will you do with it?