Graciously given gifts

God has graciously given us gifts. The gifts that God has given every person that was uniquely and wonderfully created by Him are far more valuable than any gift that you could be given in your lifetime on earth. The gifts that God gives us will last forever, whereas something that your family gets you only lasts a couple of years.

I could be given a new vehicle tomorrow and love it but what value does that have with the kingdom of heaven? The new vehicle would be really nice, it would make me feel really good about myself and I would drive it for years. What will eventually happen is that the vehicle will become older and more worn out. The value of my new vehicle would depreciate significantly every day.

The value of the gifts we are given by God don't ever depreciate. Those gifts are valuable every day. We can use the gifts that we are given by God to further the kingdom of heaven daily.

What are the gifts that God gives us?

God lovingly gives us spiritual gifts.

God is completely involved in the giving, using, and empowering of gifts. Specific gifts, places of service, and activities vary, but they are all important. God creates a unique place in the body for every believer. Gifts vary, but each believer has a specialized, God-designed role.

Part of the existing adventure of following Christ involves discovering one's spiritual gifts and then making it available to God so that we can honor Him by using those gifts. Our gifts are never meant to be used for ourselves. Make serving God and his people your motive as you utilize your gifts.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between the spirits, to another speaking in different types of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of the one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.  (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

No natter what gift(s) a person had, all spiritual gifts are distributed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit decides which gifts each believer should have. So the spiritual gifts that you have were given to you for a reason. You didn't get to choose them.

We have the unique opportunity to be responsible about how we use the gifts that we have been given. We are also responsible for sharpening those gifts. I will always remember one of my basketball coaches telling the team that we should really work on what we are good at it. I knew that I was a good stretch 4 so I could step outside and shoot 3's and midrange jumpers. I made it a priority to be good at that because it was something I was uniquely good at doing for being my height. Our coach told us that if everyone became experts at what they did well, the team would be successful because we all had a key role to play.

With that being said, we all have different spiritual gifts that we are responsible for sharpening and using to honor God and serve people.

When spiritual gifts are discussed among believers there are usually two points that are overlooked.

1 - properly used spiritual gifts are not self-serving but serve the whole body of Christ

It's easy to think that we should use our gifts for ourselves and for our benefit. We can become prideful with the gifts that we have been given and have the mindset of "hey look at me and my spiritual gift." Spiritual gifts are given to us in order to serve the whole body of Christ. We are fortunate that God willingly gives us such amazing gifts.

2 - each gift becomes practically useless when used without love

Having a spiritual gift and not using it out of love makes it pointless. Without love you can't truly serve people. An example that I think of is me writing this blog. I believe that some of what I write comes completely from God. Maybe words of wisdom is my gift, I am not sure. I don't think that I am very wise. But whenever I look back at something that I write in one of my posts I will be blown away by it. I look back and think that there is no way that I write these things. I write everyday because I love using my gift to impact the lives of other people. If I wrote these post for myself because I thought that I was a good writer, I would never feel fulfilled. I would be writing just to put words on a page and having the mindset of "hey look at what I do, I write a whole lot." Every time I write, I do it because I absolutely love sharing about things that I have read in the Bible and what God is doing in my life. Consistently spending time in the word has changed my life and I love you all enough to write and hope that your lives might be changed by reading your Bible on a daily basis as well.

I want you to know this. You have been given a spiritual gifts by God. You are loved. You have the responsibility to use those gifts to serve others and honor God. Please don't ever take your spiritual gifts for granted. They will last forever and will not ever depreciate like gifts that we are given on earth.

One more thing, I didn't just wake up one day and love to write. I did't wake up one day filled with things that I want to share with people. All of this started when I began reading my Bible consistently and on a daily basis. If you read this post and are thinking that you don't have any of these gifts, get into the Word of God and may a gift be given to you. I never thought I would write. The Word of God changed my life in so many different ways.