This past Christmas, it’s almost certain that you received a gift card from someone. Gift cards have become the go-to gift. In the past, gift cards were thought to be impersonal, given by those who didn’t want to take the time to thoughtfully shop. However, the attitude is changing with 90% of the population fully embracing the appropriateness of giving gift cards.1
Personally, I love the gift cards. It’s a gift that gives weeks after it was given. We use the card to purchase what we like when we need it. Restaurant gift cards are fun as well, allowing you to share the gift with others. Again, you get to use these when you want. It was a great gift when it was given and even greater two or three weeks down the road when you go out to eat and it didn’t cost you anything!
“Gift cards are a normal part of our world of gifting these days,” Lizzie Post, author and co-president at the Emily Post Institute, told USA TODAY. Post is the great-great-granddaughter of etiquette authority Emily Post… Most consumers purchase gift cards for retail stores, about 57%, while 52% buy restaurant gift cards…While there is growth in all age groups for purchasing and receiving gift cards, the report found, millennials spend the most on gift cards at $456 per year.”2
Now, here’s a statistic that is shocking. “The consumer finance company Bankrate found that 47% of U.S. adults had at least one unspent gift card or voucher with an average value of $187. That’s a total of $23 billion.3 Since 2000, Capital One has asked in their commercials, “What’s in your wallet?” Probably an unused gift card!
Imagine how hurt the gift giver would be to find out that you haven’t used the gift. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. Some misplaced the card. Others put it in a safe place and promptly forgot about it. There could be a myriad of reasons for not using the gift. The result is the same, though. A gift becomes a wasted gift when it’s not used.
You can smell the devotional point coming, can’t you?!?
Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:14, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” One Bible commentator writes, “That grace given to Timothy and to all believers at salvation which consisted of a God-designed, Spirit-empowered spiritual ability for the use of ministry. Timothy’s gift was leadership with special emphasis on preaching and teaching.”4
The gift of salvation is followed by the Holy Spirit gifting us for service. Every Christian has been given at least one gift with the intent that it is to be used for the benefit of all in God’s kingdom. (1 Corinthians 12:7)
I close today with a final passage of Scripture for you to consider. Read Romans 12:3-8 carefully. Verses 6-8 tell us not only about the gifts but that we are to use them. The gift is in bold and the words underlined show us the action we are to take. Are you using your gifts for the Lord or are they being wasted?
“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (4) For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: (5) So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. (6) Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; (7) Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; (8) Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.”
1https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/gift-card-statistics/
2https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/12/23/gift-cards-etiquette/77108698007/
3https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gift-cards-unspent-christmas-2023/
4MacArthur Bible Commentary, e-sword.net module
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