Gifts? What Gifts?

Good Morning,

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

1 Peter 4:10 (AMP)

As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God's many-sided grace [faithful stewards of the extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor].

We all have a gift, or even gifts perhaps, that have been given to us by a gracious and loving God. That, my friends, is just a fact. Now, there are some of us who don't realize what that gift might be, or who don't think that their giftedness is "worthy" to be shared. There are some who simply squander their gifts by not using them for the right reasons. Then, there are also those who waste their gifts by no using them and allowing them to stagnate. But, the main point is that every one of us has some gift or even many gifts that we are supposed to be used to further God's kingdom and, perhaps, to make other lives easier, joyful, and to give hope. And, maybe the worst of all would be those of us who use our gifts selfishly and alone; not using them to serve God and others.

Here's the challenge to many of us. That would be to be totally, 100% honest with ourselves and do a self examination to see if we are, as we've been instructed by God, using our gifts..."faithfully administering God's grace." Most of us would have to admit that we either aren't using what God has give us at all, or at least we haven't done it to our full ability. Now, this isn't an easy thing, this self examination, if we are brutally honest with ourselves. It can be extremely humbling (but, um, is that a bad thing?).

So, what are YOUR gifts? What have YOU been given to share with other people? What marvelous gift has God chosen to bless you with that you are supposed to use to serve? Again, and I really do want to stress this fact, we ALL have something, some giftedness. It's up to each of us to search within and once we find it, then we are to put it to use.

I know that there will be some who simply cannot see where they might be gifted. Maybe it's because their gift is such a "normal" and ingrained feature of their lives, well, they simply don't think of it as a gift. It does sometimes happen that way. So for those who might find themselves in this situation, I would suggest that they go to a friend, spouse, pastor, or even...maybe especially...a child and ask if he or she sees something rather special that could be used to serve God and God's Church. Believe me, there will be people who can see what we as individuals cannot see. We are sometimes just to close and are blinded. You know, when you can't see the forest for the trees.

Bottom line here is that we all have something to share and something with which we are to use in our lives to serve God and His children. When we don't use that gift or gifts we are being disobedient to God. Remember, things like we read in today's Scripture weren't put there just for us to read as pretty prose or good ideas, although, of course, much of the Bible IS beautiful prose and it IS filled with too many good ideas to count. No, the Bible is also our instruction book from God. Think about it. I mean, we don't call them the "10 Suggestions", do we?

Please, let's all do what we must to recognize what we have in order to serve others as we are supposed to do. When we do that, not only will be obedient to God, we will also make lives much, much better.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David