Regifting God's Gifts

Hannah gave her son Samuel back to the LORD

In the U.S. slightly over 50 percent of people either donate (31%) or regift (21%) gifts they don’t like.1 Jesse Campbell suggests seven rules for passing on unwanted gifts.2

1. Don’t regift used gifts.

2. Don’t regift handmade gifts.

3. Don’t regift personalized gifts.

4. Don’t regift things the recipient won’t enjoy.

5. Don’t regift it if the original giver might later see it.

6. Nicely wrap it.

7. Don’t reveal it is regifted.

People usually regift what they don’t want. Hannah didn’t. In 1 Samuel 1–2, we find her story. Hannah was Elkanah’s wife. She was childless. She asked the LORD to give her a son. She promised to give him back to serve Him all the days of his life (1 Samuel 1:11).

The LORD gave her a son. She named him Samuel. After he was weaned, she gave him to the LORD at Shiloh, where he served the Lord under Eli, the priest (2 Samuel 2:11).

Regifting your most precious gifts to do the Father’s will is following in Hannah’s and Jesus’ footsteps. Those gifts include your time, abilities, financial resources, and energy.

God has provided everything you have. “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7, NIV).

Jesus’ life wasn’t His own. He spent it to carry out His Father’s will (John 8:29). He lived for an audience of One. His entire life on earth was a living sacrifice. So are to be the lives of His followers (Romans 12:1–2).

Our motivations are gratitude for the undeserved favor God has poured out on us and love for God and others. That love is itself a gift from God. He pours it into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

Love sacrifices self for the sake of God and others. There is no self-sacrifice and no love when we only give away what we don’t want. We please God best when we give back to Him and others the precious gifts that first came from His hand.

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1. Survey: What do people regift and self-gift the most? - Personal Creations Blog

2. The Seven Simple Rules of Regifting (moneymanagement.org)