Scripture:
1 Peter 4:10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
Romans 12:6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.
Statement:
Eighty-two percent of self-identified Christians and 97 percent of practicing Christians view developing their gifts as a way to grow closer to God, according to new research in “Gifted for More”, as said in a recent Barna report.
Reflection:
- Has anyone noticed the proliferation of super hero movies? It seems like the past 5 years has been an explosion of both villains and hero’s that posses super powers that either want to destroy the world or save it. While Avenger movies are fun to watch, fortunately when the real world needs saving, which truthfully has happened more often than I care to admit, God always uses ordinary people with ordinary gifts and talents to save the day and rescue the world.
- Let me take you on a little journey through the Bible and make some observations about how God moves in the affairs of people and nations on our little blue planet.
- God used Noah’s craftsmanship to build a boat that saved his family and ultimately the future generations from a world wide flood. God also gave a young man named Joseph, who was currently in prison, the ability to interpret dreams which saved at least two nations from starvation. God then used a shepherd boy named David, armed with only with a sling to bring victory to a nation and ultimately a place on the throne of his nation.
- God used a teen age girl, who was forced into a beauty pageant to save her people from a holocaust by a mad vengeful enemy. And God used a zealous religious man named Saul, who before his conversion justified murder, to become a missionary that spawned the early world wide expansion of the church and brought down a corrupt Roman Empire.
- None of these people were super heroes in that they had any real super powers. They were pretty ordinary people that faithful stewarded either the circumstance they found themselves in or the gifts and talents that God had put in their lives. My guess is that if you were to have met any of these people a few months before their epic storied lives, they would have seemed very ordinary and common. The only thing that sets them apart was their 20 seconds of insane courage and their faith to use their abilities for God’s purposes.
- God used them for His purposes. God will also use you and me for His purposes, to change our families, to change our churches, to change our businesses. Be the best you, you can be, and let God do the rest.
David
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