Read: 1 Corinthians 12 & 1 Peter 4:10-11
You are forgiven, free, gifted, valuable, blessed; you have hope and you have a purpose!
Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it, but the best part is buying presents. I adore knowing what each person enjoys doing and collecting, discovering an author they like or something they want to learn. I even enjoy shopping for the person who has everything or the one who doesn’t need anything.
At parties, I sit impatiently with unbridled glee as each person opens their gift, and I watch to see if they think it’s as perfect as I do. The smile, the laughter, the screams of “Yes! It’s wonderful! I can’t wait to…” let me know if I hit the mark.
Our heavenly Father is the original, expert gift giver. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights.” God gives each of us spiritual gifts, special abilities, He expects us to use for Him. And when we do, I can just see Him laughing out loud with gleeful abandon, saying, “Yes! It’s perfect! I knew it would be.”
Our spiritual gifts should never be left under the tree. They are to bring joy to God first, us second and God’s kingdom third. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us spiritual gifts are to be used for the common good, to strengthen the church and to work in conjunction with others. No gift is better than another, as each one was picked out especially for the person who received it.
And lest we think that God has overlooked us in all of His gift giving, notice the verb tense in 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received...” Peter doesn’t say, “If you’ve received a gift...” He writes with the assurance that God has already given spiritual gifts to all of His children. So what talents, skills and abilities has the Lord given you? Write them down and look for opportunities to use the gifts you’ve been given.
