PRAYER PRACTICE
Spoken Prayer – Out loud,
pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His
word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear
from God through the passage.
DAILY READING
DEVOTION / REFLECTION
Using God's Gifts
by Pr. Dave Mann
One of the great things I love about the Bible is how it frees us
from either-or thinking. “Either one
thing is true, or the polar opposite is true” is how we tend to think. In this passage the Spirit uses the Apostle
Paul to set us free from unhelpful either-or thinking about our personal gifts. It is NOT true that either we should be braggarts
about how gifted we are, or we should be wallflowers never stepping forward to
act with confidence. The Holy Spirit
instructs in Romans 12 otherwise.
First (in verses 3-5), we read that whatever giftedness we have,
it is all given by grace. It is God who
has made us who we are. We should not
think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. It is God who has assigned us with certain
abilities. God does not give us “wages”
as though we earned what we are. But it
is by grace that we have any gifts at all. No one likes people who boast how great they
are, how spectacular they are, how special they are. We resist such people. At best we tolerate them for a time and then
we avoid them in the future. The Apostle
Paul reminds us that God is the Great Gift-Giver, and therefore we have no
basis for boasting.
On the other side, there are some people who over-react to the
call to humility by never stepping forward to put their skills into
service. The Apostle Paul calls us to
act in accord with the abilities God has wired in us (verses 6-8). If someone gives you a gift that you really
appreciate, it is normal to use it well in order to honor the giver. What is listed in verses 6-8, is not intended
to be an exhaustive list of God’s gifts.
These are examples of what God gives:
prophecy, service, teaching, encouragement, giving, leadership,
compassion, and many more. If God has
gifted you, use your gift in order to honor the Giver. God knew what he was doing when he formed
you. God is good, and he knows how to
give good gifts. Using your gifts is NOT
being overly proud; rather, using your gifts is a way of pointing to the Giver.
Heavenly Father, forgive us for allowing ourselves to be overly
proud or overly timid. Forgive us for
being boastful or for allowing our gifts to lie dormant. Thank you for your character of giving. Thank you for the good gifts you have given
each of us. Allow us the grace to serve
you well as we put into service the abilities you have given us. Amen
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