Friday, August 3, 2012

Friday Thought -- August 3, 2012


Good Morning Friends,

“Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.  If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.  And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?  If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (1 Corinthians 12:14-20)

Who is in charge of the kind of gifts and abilities you have?  God is -- that is Paul’s point.

It’s easy to look around at the gifts that others have and wish that we had them.  Perhaps you’d like to preach like Tim Keller.  Or how about sing like Natalie Grant?  Maybe you’d like to write like Philip Yancey?  Maybe you’d like to play football like Tim Tebow?  Perhaps you’d like to have the gift of giving and the money that goes along with it.  Just what gift would you like to have that you don’t?

Most of us would pick one of the obvious gifts, those that get the most attention.  It would be nice to have an “up-front” gift so that people could easily see how I’m serving the Lord and how “spiritual” I am.  Not many of us would pick the behind-the-scenes gifts like serving and mercy.

But which gifts are most important?  The point is that they are all important and all needed so that God’s work gets done effectively.  We can’t all be alike.  What kind of body would that be?  We can’t say we don’t need the behind-the-scenes gifts, how would that essential work get done?

God’s in charge of who gets what gifts.  Thank God for the gifts He has given you, and be satisfied with them.

His, by Grace,

Steve

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