The Gift
Today’s devotion is written by one our readers and supporters. If you have never visited Laurie Adams from “Women Taking a Stand“, I would like you encourage your head on over after you read her devotion today. We are thrilled that Laurie will be joining our team in January of 2009…
Recently, I celebrated my birthday. Birthdays are always fun because people show how much they care about you. One way that they show their love is by giving presents. Sometimes love can be so eloquently expressed in how the gift is wrapped.
Have you ever received such a beautifully gift-wrapped present that you did not want to rip the paper or ruin the beauty of it?
I love the pretty gift-wrapping, fancy bows and well-thought out greeting cards. However, the more important item at hand is what is inside the package. We cannot wait to tear into the present and find out what our birthday gift is!
After all, what good would it do for us to accept our gift, but never open it? How in the world would we be able to appreciate the wonderful gift that was given to us? How would we be able to use what was inside the gift box?
Likewise, how incredibly useless is it when a Christian does not use the gift that God has given them. Our God-given gifts are all different, but there is no mistake about it – God has given each of us gifts. Not only gifting such as talents but also He has given us Spiritual gifts.
1 CORINTHIANS 12:4- 6
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. (5) There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. (6) And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.”
To not use Gods gifts is the same thing as accepting that beautifully wrapped birthday present and instead of opening it – we just hold on to it. It seems just too lovely to unwrap. God’s gift is definitely a lovely thing – but it is not intended for us to just hold onto. God intends for us to use the spiritual gifts He has bestowed upon us.
ROMANS 12:5
“So, we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”
Learn to appreciate the gifts that God has given you. He has different gifts for everybody. None of us are called to do all of the work, but we can each enjoy the assignments that we are each given. We can also enjoy the work God does through others.
In order to do that though …we have to each open up our gift.
HAVE YOU UN-WRAPPED YOUR GIFT YET?
Dear Lord, Thank you for giving me the greatest gift of all – Your Son, Jesus Christ. Today, I pray that I will not only accept, but also enjoy what you have called me to do. Would you guide me and lead me today in using the gifts that you have given me to help others. AMEN
Laurie Adams, wife of an Ordained Assemblies of God Minister and mother of four children enjoys writing, teaching women’s bible studies, and she travels with her husband training Christian Education leaders. You can find her on her blog sites:
“Women Taking A Stand” and “WM First Assemble of God Praying Points“
Beautifully said dear one.
I think that we are sometimes afraid of opening up our gift, because of possible failure. But I have learned over the years that God will be there with us to develop our gifts 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today…
Hi Laurie,
I love this post. I think a lot of us don’t know what our gifts are. I know that our spiritual gifts are given so that we will use them to help people. God is amazing like that. This is a great subject and I feel led to dwell on this for awhile. Thank you. Thank you for contributing to LWG. Hugs~
Hey Laurie,
This was a really great post. 🙂 It helped me to think about how I’m actually using my gifts and to think about ways that I could become more involved in using them to reach out to others. Thank you for sharing it with all of us.
I love you, Mom #2. 🙂
Love, Rachel
Laurie, Congratulations on being invited to join “Laced with Grace”! Joanne, at Blessed wrote on the exact same thing and this is the comment that I left for her and it fits here too. You know me personally and you know this is truly my heart. Love you, girl!
I don’t know of any “talents” that God has gifted me with but what I do know is that He has given me a spirit of giving and serving others. That is something that for many, many years…I left unopened out of fear of rejection, lack of self-esteem and was in the pit of depression.
I’m here today to say that God set me free from all the things that hendered me and keep me from opening that gift that He had given me.
The only other thing that was holding me back was time. But, God is good, faithful and makes a way where there seems to be no way.
I spoke with my boss’s wife (blogging about it tomorrow on TT) and let her know that I needed to cut my hours because I couldn’t do all that I needed to do and work 40 hours (4-10 hr. days), even though, I can’t afford to cut my pay. She, through the door that Jesus Christ opened,…made a way.
I love Him so and want to be a servant to others and help the hurting through my own “Storms of Life”.
I believe that is the gift that God has personally given me. He took the ugliest parts of my life and is using them for His glory!
Love, Jenn
Beautiful post, Laurie. We should use the gifts God has given us. I need to do a spiritual gifts test and see what my gifts are…
Thank you for reminding us of the greatest gift ever given, God’s ONLY son Jesus.
Harvest blessings,-me-(Mommy of two little blessings)
Such a nice, true post. I look forward to more posts from Laurie!
Welcome to Laced with Grace Laurie,
Your post is confirmation for me to pursue and develop those gifts he has given me. Would you believe that I posted on close to this same thing this morning.
We are of the same mind today!
The Holy Spirit is moving….praise God!
Blessings, Joanne
Thanks for the wonderful post.
Welcome to LWG Laurie and thank you for this encouraging post. I love the example you used with the unwrapped gifts. Looking forward to reading more.
Wonderful post!! Thanks for the reminder about our personal & unique gifts! I couldn’t help but be reminded of Matthew 25:14-30 (NKJV) after reading this post.