Have you ever said, “It’s too much! I couldn’t accept this gift”? Why do we have such a hard time receiving gifts? We like giving them but push back when someone tries to give us a gift. It could have something to do with pride because when we give, we get credit and recognition. It puts us in the driver’s seat of the relationship. However, when we receive a gift, it opens the door to intimacy in the relationship. The extent to which we fear intimacy is the extent to which we reject gifts. While it is more blessed to give than to receive, it’s often an act of obedience and humility to receive.
We all know John 3:16 and how God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only son. We usually don’t connect that verse with Christmas, but it is the quintessential Christmas verse. God demonstrated His love for you and me by giving the most extravagant gift ever: salvation through His son. It’s a free gift, but it’s one that we must receive along with the other gifts that He gives us. There’s a tendency in all of us to push back on this free gift because we fear intimacy with God. We like the idea of keeping Him at arm’s length knowing that receiving the gift of His son requires our soul, our life, our all. Intimacy is what He is looking for from us.
John 1:11 says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (NKJV). When God gave us the gift of Christmas, the world’s initial reaction was to not receive it. The prophesy in Isaiah 7:14 said that His gift would be called Immanuel which translates to God with us. Since the beginning, God has desired an intimate relationship with each of us. It begins when we receive His free gift, but is grown through our spiritual disciplines. We must open our hands and hearts to receive the gift of Immanuel that God gives. Your level of intimacy with Him is in proportion to the amount you receive Immanuel and trust Him with your heart and life.