This Wednesday’s Word is the final devotional adapted from my new book, Sunday Matters: 52 Devotionals to Prepare Your Heart for Church.
Next week, we’ll start a four-week series on Advent, but since we’re recovering from the onslaught of Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, it’s probably appropriate to consider the gospel and its everyday application to Christmas gifts a week early!
A very wealthy man once invited me to dinner at a fancy restaurant. During the meal, he shared something heart-breaking: “I don’t know who my real friends are. Because I am rich, I don’t know if people want to be around me because they like me and care about me or because they think I can do things for them. I live wondering all the time if people want me or if they just want my wallet.”
I have thought about that conversation many times. First, it convicted me horizontally to see people as people, not by their role in my life, what they can do for me, or their status and title.
But I was also convicted vertically. Is this how I treat the richest Person I know–the King of kings and Lord of lords?
It’s tempting for us to love the lavish things the Giver so generously blesses us with more than we love him. When we do this, we turn God into nothing more than a vending machine. We put in a couple of prayer coins and press the “amen” button with the expectation that God will give us what we have set our hearts on.
In this way prayer, which seems to be our most direct Godward act, can actually be idolatrous. If the thing that draws us into prayer is not a love for God and a surrender to his will (“your kingdom come, your will be done”), but rather is dominated by requests for the delivery of things that have captured our hearts, then what seems like an act of worship of the Creator is really an act of worshiping the creation.
Rather than seeking the Giver for the gifts that he can provide, seek the Giver himself. I love how David pens it in Psalm 27:4:
“One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.”
If you love the Giver, then you will love his will, prize his commands, seek his glory, and trust he will meet your needs. If you love the Giver, then you will surrender your allegiance to your little kingdom of one and give yourself to the greater purposes of his Kingdom.
If you love the Giver, you don’t demand that he serve you, but you make sacrifices in service of him. If you love the Giver, your life is not shaped and directed by “Today, I want” but by “What does God want of me today?”
This Christmas season, remember that at the very first Christmas, something radical happened: the gift was the Giver himself.
Imagine the arrogance of gifting yourself to someone this year with a card saying, “I didn’t get you a gift because I’m all you need”! But Christmas is about precisely that: God gifting himself to us.
Our Savior knew that our need as sinners was so profound and that our pain and suffering in this fallen world was so deep and inescapable that the only thing he could give us was himself.
This holiday season, delight in giving gifts to others. Have fun using what you receive. But don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas.
That’s why I love going to church in December. I love church every month, but in our consumerism culture obsessed with created gifts, we need to remember our need for the Creator as the ultimate gift.
Be thankful for the gathering of God’s people each Sunday in December because here, again and again, you will be reminded that no gift will ever be as wonderful as the Giver.
That Giver is, himself, the best gift you have ever been given! Corporate worship is designed to deepen your love for the Giver so you will be progressively free from worshiping the gift.
P.S. – if you want timely reminders of why attending church is important in December, consider reading Sunday Matters each Saturday evening to prepare your heart for worship. My newest devotional is available at PaulTripp.com/Sunday.
God bless,
Paul David Tripp
Reflection Questions
1. In what specific ways are you tempted to treat God as a vending machine? How are you enticed to love God for the lavish things he generously blesses you with instead of for himself? How have you been drawn toward inserting “prayer coins” into the “God vending machine” with the expectation that he will give you what you have set on your heart? In what ways has prayer actually been idolatrous in your life?
2. Take several moments to meditate again on Psalm 27:4 and pray that God will reshape your heart toward loving him, the Giver, instead of the gifts the Giver provides for you. Ask him to help you love his will, prize his commands, seek his glory, and trust that he will meet your needs. In what specific ways do you need to surrender your allegiance to your little kingdom of one (your wants, your desires, your needs) and give yourself to the greater purposes of his Kingdom? How can you be intentional this holiday season to purposefully shape your prayer life into the default of “What does God want of me today?” instead of “Today I want…”?
3. Why is God gifting himself to us truly the greatest gift any human being can receive? Why is admitting your need this Christmas a good thing, not a bad thing? How can embracing the fact that you’re in need of God’s grace make you into an abundantly generous person?
4. Why do you think there’s a uniqueness to attending church specifically in the month of December? How can Sunday worship this month help you to remember your need for the Creator instead of just the gifts he graciously gives to us? How can your love for the Giver free you from worshiping the gifts this Christmas? Take some time to write down a few specific ways that could play out for you this Advent season.
