What to do when God gives you a Gift-Card

With the Holidays rapidly approaching, and everyone’s Amazon shopping cart steadily filling to the brim, I have run into an annual and consistently tricky conundrum: there are some people in my family, and they exist in yours too I guarantee it, who are just so challenging to shop for. Whether they are too modest to say what they truly want, too selfless to expect a present, too indecisive themselves, or just horrible communicators, they exist in every family. These are the people for whom I normally end up in the candy aisle the day before Christmas, and just guess on their favorite percentage of cocoa in a fancy dark chocolate bar. And frequently in these situations, I feel the temptation arise to just buy them a gift-card instead of a proper gift. However, normally I end up siding with the dark chocolate option, with the excuse that a gift-card is “too impersonal.”

So when it comes to Christmas presents, I tend to not be a gift-card kind of gal. But there are other areas in which I think the idea of a gift-card can be extremely beneficial.

As Christians, when we are faced with a decision or choice, we tend to become nervous of making the wrong decision. I couldn’t tell you how many times I have wished the Lord would write His will in pretty calligraphy on the front cover of my journal and solve my questioning on which road I was called to take. And while He may speak directly to some people, my own personal experience has never been a message in the clouds or lettering on the wall.

And this frustrates me. A lot. “Jesus, just tell me what I’m supposed to do. Make your will known to me. Help me make this decision. Show me which one of these two is from You…” just a short snippet from my daily prayer.

The truth is, when it comes to making decisions, we frequently want the Lord to give us a gift and wrap it up with pretty paper and a bow so that we know what is exactly from Him. We want Him to make the decision for us.

But I don’t believe the Lord is always like that.

While sometimes He does present His will and plan to us in a clear and understandable way, I have found that more often He gives us options.

What I mean to say is, the Lord doesn’t always give gifts, but sometimes gives us a gift-card.

Sometimes He wants us to choose. Sometimes He lets us decide what it is that we want. When faced with multiple options that are all good, have nothing bad in and of themselves, and all can serve as a way in which we can glorify Him, He might be giving us the choice.

What do YOU want?

Whether that is in regards to a career, a new job, a place to go to college, where to live, or where to invest most of your time, He might not be giving you a gift. He might be giving you options. He might be giving you the opportunity to choose that which excites you the most.

He might be giving you a gift-card.

And so while I still don’t recommend it for the Holidays, I invite you to open yourself up to receiving that gift-card as a gift from Him. After all, He is the giver of all good gifts.

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"Every good and perfect give is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights." - James 1:17

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