You can discover your Spiritual gifts today and immediately use them tomorrow.
Romans 12:3-8 (NIV)
3Â For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4Â For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5Â so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6Â We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7Â if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8Â if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 28: The Obligations of Church Members
We believe that
since this holy assembly and congregation
is the gathering of those who are saved
and there is no salvation apart from it,
no one ought to withdraw from it,
content to be by himself,
regardless of his status or condition.
But all people are obliged
to join and unite with it,
keeping the unity of the church
by submitting to its instruction and discipline,
by bending their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ,
and by serving to build up one another,
according to the gifts God has given them
as members of each other
in the same body.
And to preserve this unity more effectively,
it is the duty of all believers,
according to God’s Word,
to separate themselves
from those who do not belong to the church,
in order to join this assembly
wherever God has established it,
even if civil authorities and royal decrees forbid
and death and physical punishment result.
And so,
all who withdraw from the church
or do not join it
act contrary to God’s ordinance.
Summary
Today's Summary & Dig Deeper are a reprint from May 24, 2023
Throughout his letters, Paul often uses the image of the body as an analogy for the Church. It's amazing just how many systems within your body need to be working well and in harmony with other internal systems in order for you to be healthy. So it is, Paul writes, with the Church.
As Americans , we're a fiercely independent bunch (as are most of the Candadiens reading this), which in many realms of society is a good thing. We know that society as a whole does better when each individual looks out for his own interests rather than depending on more socialistic systems. But this passage commands us to shelve that individualistic attitude when it comes to the Church. In the Church, "each member belongs to all the others."
This means that the particular gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you do not belong just to you. As we've noted before, these gifts you've been given come with strings attached. Not only are you obligated to utilize them to build up the church, but you must use them to benefit your fellow church members.
The final two verses of today's passage form a comprehensive but not exhaustive catalog of gifts, as well as a repeated command to utilize what you've been given. Notice how the final few commands include an adverb to add emphasis that your gift sharing efforts must be more than mediocre. Give generously. Lead diligently. Show mercy cheerfully.
Dig Deeper
When we cleaned our truck repair shop out years ago before selling it, we found all sorts of things in the warehouse that we forgot we had. What made that especially painful was the realization that we had bought that same part several times over at tremendous cost when we had a dozen of them in storage. What a waste!
As we've mentioned before, you can't use what you don't know you have. You've been given a gift that Christ not only expects you to use, but in a sense depends on you to use it to build His Church. Your fellow members are being shortchanged if you're not sharing your gift with them. And you can't do any of this if you don't know what your gifts are! What a waste!
We have a resource available to help you identify your gifts and become the productive body part that God created you to be. It's a large catalog of different gifts, many of which you probably didn't even know were Spiritual gifts. This resource can be found at wgtncrc.org/gifts.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has distributed faith and spiritual gifts to each of His children;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for the gifts He's given you, and pray that you'll know what they are, how to use them and that you'll use them cheerfully!
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 Timothy 1
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