Skip to main content

Jesus' Pieces

1 Peter 4:10-11 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. (NLT)

    We are all designed with unique gifts from God that are to be used to show His glory through us. Every one of us carries our own little piece of Jesus for the world to see. All we have to do with these gifts is receive them and use them to bring Him glory.

    We were not given gifts only to sit on them or use for our own selfish enjoyment. They are meant to glorify Jesus Christ. We get to enjoy the benefits of that, but the gifts themselves are not solely for us. Everything He gives us is for a purpose. It is our job to identify our gifts and find venues to use them. For example, if you feel you have a gift of hospitality, how can you use that to glorify God? Or As 1 Peter illustrates, a gift to speak or help others. If we do not use our gifts, they become obsolete. We are supposed to use them, or fan them into flame, so they grow and we can glorify Jesus on an even larger scale!

2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. (NIV)

    Another interpretation of 1 Peter 4:10 says that we are to be "good managers" of our gifts. We have to be wise about what we do with our talents and abilities. How are you using yours? Do you know what they are? Sometimes we can get caught up in comparing ourselves with others and imitating or longing for their gifts. This is the complete wrong way to approach this. We are not made in the image of man, but in the image of God! We strive to be like Him, not others. When we fixate on trying to be like others, we miss out on living in the fullness of Christ in us! We are all important and needed in the body of Christ and we can't waste time and effort to be something we are not because not only will we not be fulfilled, but the body won't be complete without your piece.

1 Corinthians 12:27 All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it. (NLT)

     Today pray for Jesus to identify your gifts to you and how He wants you to use them. Let Him guide you through this process. Look to Him and not to those around you and you will find fulfillment. Walking out life in the fullness of our gifts is a beautiful and rewarding thing. Don't miss out on it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

He Time

     We have now gone over me time and we time, so today I want to address He time. It's a pretty simple concept-- that we have to spend time with Jesus to grow our faith. Just like anything else we want to get better at, you have to spend time doing it. In the case of Christianity, we are changed into the image of Jesus as we spend time with Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (ESV)     My message is as simple as this-- make sure that you are setting time aside for Christ. You will never change if you don't continually immerse yourself into His presence. We need to be spending time in His word so we know His promises and guidelines for our life, in prayer to speak to Him for individual direction in our circumstances, and worshipping Him for His goodness.     Do not le...
Post a Comment
Read more

Think Twice

    When the Holy Spirit was sent to us on earth, it made Jesus readily available to all. Now He lives in us, not among us. When you are a born again Christian, you now have Jesus dwelling inside you. How does that affect your daily life? Do you realize that you are a reflection of the one you carry with you everywhere you go?    Sadly, that doesn't mean much to a lot of Christians. Instead of using Jesus as an instrument of love, hope, and salvation, they use His name as a weapon. They spend their time boycotting instead of praying for Jesus to change hearts. Telling others that the God who IS love, hates them. Letting others know that they will go to hell for their decisions, instead of lighting the way to heaven. Let me be clear: this is wrong! No one wants to believe in a hateful, unforgiving God. I certainly don't. That's why I follow Jesus.     Even if you aren't the one openly boycotting on street corners, be careful of the image of God you are g...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dancing Through the Fire

     For a couple weeks now the Lord has been pressing this message on my heart. He revealed a flaw in my thinking I hadn't noticed. You see, when hard times come it's in my nature to duck and cover. I go into "survival mode" and I get tunnel vision. I only focus on getting through what's in front of me alive. But in doing so, not only do I miss a lot of opportunities, but I give in to the voice of fear in my life.     I know I don't speak only for myself when I say that God wants to us in our "every day lives." Not only at church or on a special mission trip, but in the trenches of the grocery store, the gym, work, etc. It is His will that every soul is saved and He wants us to go out into the world and win those hearts for Him. But when I put myself in survival mode, I block out all the opportunities God lays before me. When I numb myself with the routine of each passing day, week, and month, I miss out on sharing the one thing of eternal importa...
1 comment
Read more