Giving Spiritual Gifts This Holiday Season
Copyright 2007 ~ Marriage Healing Ministry

How can we give someone spiritual gifts during this holiday season? Can we wrap HOPE up in a box and put a big ribbon around it? No, we can’t. But we can BE hope by sharing our testimony with someone who has ears to hear. That would be one of the best gifts we could give anyone. Who could not use the message of hope?

Can we wrap WISDOM up in a box and put a big ribbon around it? No, we can’t. But we can SHOW wisdom by living our life as an example of someone who has built his or her house on the rock. There is no better gift we can give others than the gift of wisdom.

How can we gift-wrap MERCY? We can forgive someone whom needs our forgiveness by showing mercy and giving them the gift of compassion. We teach compassion and kindness by doing compassionate things. How great forgiveness becomes when we have unburdened someone’s heart through our compassion for him or her.

PATIENCE can never be gift wrapped because it would shut it up in the dark. But we can show patience with someone who is having a stressful day behind the check out counter or we can be patient with our own family by listening to what they have to say without interrupting like we always do. Patience truly is a virtue. This is something that we all need to work on.

Can we just hand over TRUST in a pretty red box with a green ribbon around it? No, we must first ask God to help us to trust again so we can give the gift of trust to someone we love. We cannot give the gift of trust until we accept the gift of Christ within our heart. Blessed is the one who already trusts in God, for they can freely give trust away to another.

Last Christmas many husband’s and wives looked for LOVE under the tree but all they got was a tie and a blender. Love does not come in pretty shiny packages because it is something that needs to be acted upon by the giver. How many ways can we show love? We can show love in a hundred and one ways – find your ways and give love away today.

How many times can we be HUMBLE with others? Can we put some pretty paper around it and hand it over to our children for Christmas? No, we first must walk in humbleness every day so our children can get a better understanding of how they may walk in modesty as a true follower of Jesus Christ.

How can we show ACCEPTANCE when we are all so different? Acceptance only means tolerance in the sense that we are not anyone’s judge and executioner and we should not behave as such. If we become overly self-righteous with others, what are we really saying to them about who we are as Christ followers? We are to rebuke our brothers and sisters in the Lord and that is our example to follow. Jesus said, turn your life around and sin no more.

Too many people are living in a state of depression and loneliness. What better present can we give then the gift of JOY? In what ways can you gift wrap joy and bring happiness to the sad, and encouragement to the discouraged, and courage to the fearful and, rest to the anxious. God says He will fill our mouth with laughter and our lips with shouts of Joy! Ask Him and receive the gift of joy so you may in turn give the gift to someone else. (Job 8:21) 

How does one show THANKFULNESS? We do not find thankfulness under the Christmas tree; on the contrary it does not come in a big or small package because thankfulness is shown through our life in Christ. It is shown in how we treat others and how we treat ourselves.

We should all stop and be thankful for the many things we take for granted, such as the man or woman we married, and know how blessed we are to have that person to share the rest of our life with. Being appreciative of him or her at all times throughout the marriage, and not just when everything is going smoothly.

Being thankful for the beautiful children God has given us, so that we may teach them His merciful ways of giving and loving without expecting anything at all in return. Our children our really God’s children – we are only caretakers of them until they are old enough to take care of themselves.

We have so much more to be thankful for in this world but this article is getting too long as it is. So I must end it with the biggest gift we have been given from God and that is forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Without that gift we would not understand what any of these precious gifts I have mentioned so far can really do for our lives, but as it is, we know that through Him we may some day be with God in Heavenly Paradise. 

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. (Colossians 2: 6-7)