Give gifts like God

As I write this, it’s three days before Christmas. I’m still considering what to give. I have Christmas Eve obligations, so that cuts my shopping days down to two.

More importantly though, I’ve been considering how to give rather than what to give.

God gives gifts differently than we give gifts. God doesn’t expect a gift in return. God doesn’t worry about how much the gift costs. God doesn’t…

Enough about what God doesn’t do. What does he do?

In this article, we’re going to look at how God gives gifts. Then we’ll transfer God’s example to see how we can apply it to the way we give.

How God gives gifts

With love rather than obligation…

Does God have to give gifts? Is He even expected to give them? We expect the blessings of God only because He has told us to expect them. And God only told us to expect blessings because he loves us. In other words, it’s God’s character, His loving nature, that compels Him to give.

One of my favorite verses is this:

“We love Him because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19

Before God showed His love for us, we weren’t even aware of it. How then could God’s gifts been given out of obligation?

No, God’s gifts have nothing to do with an obligation He has with us. God’s gifts are given purely because of His love.

…God invests value in the gift…

A gift from God is not cheap. God gives His best.

What’s valuable to God? His Son… He gave that. His character… He gave that. His love, his forgiveness, his protection… he gave all of these to us. Each of these is valuable to God yet He gives them away as gifts to His children. God even gave us His name. We’re called Christians. God stakes His reputation on us. (Perhaps that should be added to the list of steps to ruin your reputation.) We are made in His image.

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him…” – Genesis 1:27

The list of value God has put into His gifts is literally endless. God has given us every valuable possession He has.

…and gives value with the gift…

It is not enough to put value into the gift. If the person who receives the gift does not receive the value, the value put into the gift is hollow. But God gives value with the gifts He gives.

For example, God’s given us understanding…

“But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.” – Job 32:8

…and it’s valuable.

“But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value…” – Job 38:12-13

Take salvation as another example. God gave His only begotten Son, arguably His most valued possession. And that value transferred to us, those who receive the gift of salvation. We receive infinite value from this gift for the infinite cost it was to God. We are pardoned from all our sins through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Meaning that we are now able to spend eternity with God in heaven instead of spending eternity in hell, as we deserve. I’d say that’s a fairly significant value for us.

The value transfers with God’s gifts.

…Expecting nothing in return

God doesn’t give us gifts thinking we’re going to give anything back. We can’t. We don’t have anything except what He’s given us. God knows that, yet He still chooses to freely give us everything good.

This is part of what makes a gift a true gift. If a back-end expectation is present, it takes love out of the giving. This goes back to the first part about giving with love rather than obligation. Just as a gift is not truly given if a front-end obligation exists, so too is a gift not truly given if a back-end expectation exists.

True giving lacks contingencies. God demonstrates this perfectly in His gifts for us.

The complete example summarized:

With love rather than obligation, God invests value in the gift and gives value with the gift, expecting nothing in return.

But wait. Isn’t there a problem here? God gives abundantly with infinite resources. We don’t have infinite resources so how can we give like God? In other words…

Is it possible to give like God?

Yes, we can give like God through God.

As Jesus said:

“With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” – Mark 10:27

Only through God can we take the next steps.

How you can give gifts like God

With love rather than obligation…

Are you obligated to give gifts this Christmas? How about on your friend’s birthday? Your friend might appreciate a gift given out of obligation as much as one given out of love, but then it’s not a true gift.

Think of it like this. If the government secretly taxed your neighbor and gave you the money, you’d appreciate the extra cash. But that doesn’t mean your neighbor gave you the gift. Obligations are like the government. If the obligation forces the exchange, the result might look like a gift, but it really isn’t.

In a way then, it’s still helpful to give out of obligation rather than not at all, but it’s a mistake to call it a gift. Perhaps a more accurate term is ‘payment’. It’s payment for the obligation.

Give gifts instead. Give with love.

…Invest value in the gifts…

This means examining yourself. What can you give that’s valuable to you? The best gifts are costly. What’s costly for you? Is it your money, your time, your stuff? Those are fairly easy to figure out how to give.

But suppose it’s less tangible? Maybe it’s your beliefs, ambitions, or reputation that are valuable to you. You can give these as well.

Beliefs can be changed to benefit others. One of the simplest: change your belief from “self-help” to “others-help”. Become others-centered.

Ambitions can be redirected to help others succeed in their ambitions. Help a friend start a business or help a couple adopt kids.

Your reputation can be used to promote others. Give a recommendation or publicly support a project someone else is doing.

What’s scary to give? Give that.

…And give value with the gifts…

For value to count, it must transfer from the gift-giver (you in this case) to the gift-receiver. This means examining others, becoming interested in them. Far too often we stop before this step. We assume that since we put our value into the gift, that same value will be given. That’s not always the case.

I enjoy tinkering on the Internet, learning about marketing, and working online. Most of the best in the business sell information products, teaching (supposedly) how to succeed. Those products would be valuable to me. I might even purchase one of these products. But now let’s suppose I give it to my mother.

The value doesn’t transfer. My mother isn’t interested in working online (in fact, she’s not even interested in working for money at all). I hope you’re seeing the problem here. The translation is wrong. I put in value, but the value doesn’t come out for her.

In giving any gift, it’s crucial that the gift-receiver gets the value. After all, that’s the purpose of the gift – to give value.

In the Bible, Cain learned this the hard way when he tried to give vegetables to God. God didn’t want vegetables. That’s what Cain wanted to give. (You can read the whole story in Genesis 4.)

The giver must align with what the receiver wants. Again, this means focusing on others and becoming interested in their desires, not on what we want to give.

…Expecting nothing in return

After all the hard work put into the gift and trying to meet a need, it’s easy to fail this last part.

One way to practice is to give to others who can’t return the favor. Here’ are a couple ways to do this:

1) Give to someone who has nothing to give back. This is what God did when He gave us His Son and everything else. Practically speaking, it would be like you giving to a homeless veteran on the street or a struggling, single mother.
2) Give to someone anonymously. You could buy a dinner for someone without them knowing about you, say at a party where there are lots of other potential givers. Or you could send a check in the mail without a return address.
3) Give to someone who doesn’t know you at all. If you buy a dinner for someone at a separate table, you might say hi and tell them you’re going to pick up the bill (and tell them about Jesus while you’re at it). But they won’t be able to pay you back because they don’t know or how to get in touch with you.

These are just suggestions. Make up your own ideas. And then graduate to expecting nothing from those who could give back.

The complete guide summarized:

How do you give like God? Follow His example:

With love rather than obligation, invest value in the gifts and give value with the gifts, expecting nothing in return.

Serving Suggestions:

(1) I challenge you to give at least one gift this week, following God’s pattern.

(2) Share your experience with us. This doesn’t need to be a bragging match. We don’t need to know what you gave. Tell us instead how you gave and how you learned from it.