Episode 69

TODAY’S READING:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

1 Peter 4:10

 

You know I can admit that I reuse gift bags, but unless it’s a gift from a white elephant, I truly feel horrible about regifting something that was given to me. Even when my grandmother would gift me a tacky oversized tee-shirt, I would have to find a way to use it. Most of the time, it would just become my go-to pajama. 

 

Similarly, God gave us all different gifts. We’ve been granted unique qualities that form our strengths in the spirit. Just like any gift, we may not necessarily love the gifts we’ve been given. Take me, for example. I have been given the give of administration. As much as it makes me happy to see things in order, I also get frustrated when others don’t understand processes as easily as I do. Therefore I fight my nature to take on admin work. It makes me feel as though no one can help me because others won’t understand how to do the work “correctly.” 

 

This is a constant battle in which I have to remind myself that others have different strengths that come easy to them and not to me. 

 

There are 4 different places in the bible that talk about the gifts of the spirit. Some of them overlap. Here they are: 

 

In Romans 12, the following are listed as Spiritual Gifts:

Encouragement 

Giving

Leadership

Mercy

Prophecy

Service

Teaching

 

In 1 Corinthians 12, it says: 

Administration 

Discernment

Healing

Interpretation of Languages

Languages

Prophecy 

Wisdom

Apostle

Faith

Helps

Knowledge

Miracles

Teaching

In Ephesians 4 it lists:

Apostle

Pastor

Teaching

Evangelism 

Prophecy 

and in 1 Peter, it talks about Serving and Teaching.

Just like Bath and Body Works, the Holy Spirit has a lot of gifts sets you may be blessed to receive. 

 

This verse is saying to use your gifts to serve others. It’s asking us to steward or gifts, which means to properly use and care for them. Like I said, sometimes we may receive a gift from a friend or a family member that we truly don’t like, and the same can happen in the spirit. Except unlike white elephant, you can’t regift this. You must embrace the strengths you’ve been blessed with. 

 

Today I pray we embrace our strengths. I pray we embrace who God created us to be. If you know you have the gift of administration, serve others with that gift. If you know you’ve been granted great Faith, inspire others to build theirs up. If you’ve been given great wisdom, speak into the lives of those who need it. 

 

Imagine what the world would look like if we all embraced our true gifts. 

 

PRAYER

Jesus, thank you for our gifts. Thank you for blessing us all with our individual strengths. I pray we embrace the very people you designed us to be. I pray we make you proud as we serve others with the gifts you’ve given us. We are thankful you’ve blessed us with such strengths. We ask for direction when using them, and we ask that every day, as we work on these gifts, we become stronger than the day before. We pray for a world that embraces their strengths and works to build each other up. It is in your Holy Name that we pray, Amen!