God’s gifts to us…

When Christians are at odds about what is most important, some of the conflict could be rooted in their spiritual gifts. Those who study the gifts teach that this passage in Romans is about motivations:

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:6–8)

Years of observation and study say a Christian has all seven, but one or two will dominate and determine their focus in ministry, and should be appropriate to other situations. A brief description puts it this way:

Prophesy (perceiver of God’s will) - desires to be centered on spiritual principles.
Server - desires doing practical things for others.
Teacher - information gatherer and wants it shared.
Exhorter - desires to know and live the truth, looking forward.
Giver - provides specific needs, a channel for God’s resources.
Leader (Administrator or visionary) - desires organization, moving forward, orderly.
Compassion - desires right relationships, hurts healed, people to be comforted.

Gift combinations produce interesting results. For instance, a perceiver/teacher will be more black and white than a compassion/teacher. An encourager also gifted in leadership with function differently than an encourager/server.

As I read the devotional book for this year, I finally realized that the author does not have the same gifts I do, and I’ve tended to challenge some of the entries. In my thinking, if someone is upset or filled with anxiety, it is due to an error in thinking and not being centered on what God says. Instead of comfort, or to be comforted, they need to better understand the will of God.

Today’s reading focuses on this verse: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3) Of course this is true, yet how God treats me depends on what is making me uncomfortable. If I want my way and am resisting Him, He is not going to cheer me up by giving an okay to that resistance. Sometimes I face strong discipline. At the same time, I know the Lord is the only one who can give me a hug and a rebuke at the same time.

The gifts He gives all require faith in their use. If I am walking in the flesh, I can be a black and white know-it-all. If an encourager is walking in the flesh, they come across as a used car salesman (apologies for the stereotype). A comforter can totally miss the mark if I need correction. This is why God gave this mixture of gifts. The Body of Christ needs all seven, used in wisdom and timing. If an elderly person slips and knocks over a cup of coffee, they need a different word than if the spill was made by a young person who was showing off and careless.

Last week, my daughter asked me an interesting question. “Everyone has a main goal in life. What is yours?” We’d been talking about paying bills and having no debt, so I was not sure what she expected, but this came out: “I want to be content in all of life, no matter the circumstances.” I may have inserted “trusting God” in there, can’t remember. However, just saying it and remembering what I said, has helped me this week as we moved to a different house and face the formidable task of finding a place for what is needed and disposing of the rest. Physical fatigue is one thing, but being stressed and discontent takes a far greater toll. Attitude is more important then gifts!

PRAY: Lord Jesus, I am grateful that You are the God of all comfort and the God of everything else that is needed. You sent others with gifts that minister to me and give me opportunities to serve others with my gifts. Most of all, You are strong, even perfect in all of them, and are able to be all that I need when I need it. Jesus, You are God who is enough!

Seeing God

 

2 Samuel 22; Psalm 78:1–39; Ezekiel 29; Galatians 2

 When I am bent on having my way about something, I cannot see straight. In other words, my strong desire for having my way blinds me to other ways of understanding. This works with how I see God also.

The Old Testament is filled with how this works both ways; the way His people understood Him and the way they behaved were strongly linked. King David said:

“With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you deal purely, and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. (2 Samuel 22:26–28)

People who responded to the mercy of God and did their best to live holy lives understood God as a merciful and holy God. Those determined to have their own way understood God as harsh and unrelenting. Sometimes the God of the OT is said to be different that the God in the NT, but the Bible is clear that He does not change; our understanding varies with how we respond to what we do know.

The psalmist recounts OT history and how God supplied the needs of His people. He also chastened them for their sin and persisted in showing them how to live but . . .

In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. (Psalm 78:32–39)

All of this reveals a truth that is hard to swallow — even as God reveals His holy nature and guides in the ways His people should live, sin was the norm rather than faith and obedience. The grace and character of God needed to be revealed in another way — and it was . . .

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son . . . . He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:1–3)

Jesus came, revealing the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.” This is God in human flesh. Seeing Him transforms lives, enabling trust and obedience because He, God Himself, is not only clearly seen but walks right into our lives.

All this happens because God did what He did. Thousands of years recorded in OT history reveal that humanity could not do it. The NT clearly points out the wonder of it:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21–26)

And it is repeated, plain for those whose desire is to see yet nonsense for the DIY people who claim they do not need it or that God is something other than what He revealed in Jesus Christ . . .

We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ . . . because by works of the law no one will be justified . . . I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:16–21)

APPLY: Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) He supplies the purity, also the vision. I just need to respond with my eyes and heart wide open.