Regifting What Matters Most: Giving God Our Best, Not Our Leftovers
- Jack Selcher
- Sep 17, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Summary
People often give away what they do not want, but Scripture calls believers to give God their best. Hannah modeled this by offering her most precious gift, her son, to the Lord. Like Jesus, Christians are to live sacrificially, returning to God the time, abilities, resources, and energy He first gave them. True love and gratitude motivate such costly giving, which pleases God far more than offering Him leftovers.
Regifting in Everyday Life
In the U.S., slightly over 50 percent of people donate (31%) or regift (21%) gifts they do not like.1 Jesse Campbell suggests seven rules for passing on unwanted gifts.2
1. Do not give used gifts.
2. Do not pass on handmade gifts.
3. Do not give away personalized gifts.
4. Do not give things the recipient will not enjoy.
5. Do not give a gift that the original giver might see later.
6. Nicely wrap it.
7. Do not reveal that it is regifted.
Hannah’s Example of Costly Devotion
People usually give away what they do not want. Hannah did not. In 1 Samuel 1-2, we find her story.
Giving God Our Best
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)
Following Jesus’ Pattern of Sacrifice
Jesus’ life was not His own. He spent it following His Father’s will (John 8:29).
Living for an Audience of One
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).
Love as the Motive for Sacrifice
Our motivations are gratitude for the undeserved favor God has bestowed 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 or love when we only give away what we do not want. We please God best when we give back to Him and others the precious gifts that first came from His hand. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
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