Tag: Spiritual Gifts

Don’t Just Stand There, Use Your Gifts (1 Peter 4-5)

On By pastorjonathanIn DevotionalLeave a comment

1Peter 4:10 ESV As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

In my few years of ministry I have noticed that sometimes folks get discontented with others in the areas of their gifting. Those gifted in organization tend to wonder why the Sunday School Class, Children’s ministry, etc. isn’t more organized. Those gifted in hospitality wonder why they haven’t been invited over more often to others houses. The list goes on. We see the needs most clearly in the areas that we are able to help. We need to be careful and observant that our discontent moves us to healthy action rather than undue criticism.

We each have at least one gift from the Holy Spirit that we are called to use to bless the body of Christ. How are you serving others with the gifts that God has given you? Your gifting is from God. You may think it’s just personality, your genes, or you are just the way you are, but don’t miss the fact that God has entrusted you with at least one spiritual gift. You were given spiritual gifts for a purpose. Your gifting wasn’t given to you for you to be a judge or a critic but for you to serve one another in his name.

Your gifting is for others. You received it, but it’s not for you to keep to yourself. You don’t exercise spiritual gifts in isolation. They weren’t given to be hidden or never used. Spiritual gifts are to be exercised in the power of the Holy Spirit for the Glory of God.

Father, thank you that you have entrusted us with spiritual gifts that we might serve one another. Help us to discern when and where we need to use our gifts so that we might be good stewards of the gifts you have given us. Thank you again for your grace that empowers us to minister to one another. Let us exercise our gifts to their fullest capacity for your glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

RESOURCES:

2020 Post on 1 Peter 4-5

Join us in reading though the New Testament in 90 Days! You can find the plan and previous posts here.

Love (1 Corinthians 13-15)

On By pastorjonathanIn DevotionalLeave a comment

1Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

What good is a brand new sports car if you don’t have a battery or any gas? You can’t drive it. It won’t go anywhere because it doesn’t have any power. It might be nice to look at and admire, but it’s fullest potential will never be unleashed without some sort of power.

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that while the gifts of the Spirit are to be sought, love is what is really needed. Love empowers and directs the use our Spiritual Gifts. We shouldn’t use spiritual gifts to pump ourselves up and inflate our egos, but we should demonstrate love in how we use the spiritual gifts that God has given. Paul works this out in 1 Corinthians 14 when he illustrates what order in a church service should look like. Love seeks to edify the whole congregation, not just itself.

1Corinthians 13:8 ESV Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

One of the thing that will we see just a taste of in this life, that will be perfected in Heaven, is the gift of love. Right now we love in a fallen and a broken world. In Heaven where all brokenness is either outlawed or mended to be whole, we will know love without bitterness. There won’t be envy, prideful boasting, back stabbing, arrogance, or selfishness. Where love remains and is perfected, the people who walk the streets of gold will genuinely want the best for one another. Between the folks there, there will only be the fullest expression of everything listed in this chapter as an attribute of love. Between God and His people, there will only be the deepest love. Love remains. Other things pass away, but one thing we know for certain is that beyond the vail of death, for those in Christ, love remains.

Father, Thank you for loving us. I pray that we earnestly seek to love you and love one another as you empower us with the Holy Spirit. May we be better at loving you and loving others every day of our lives this side of eternity. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

RESOURCES:

Last Year’s Post

Join us in reading though the New Testament in 90 Days! You can find the plan and previous posts here.