The Most Useful Gifts

Most of us have unwrapped our Christmas presents...how many of you got "useful gifts," the kind you might need but don't always appreciate? The joy of receiving useful gifts seems to differ according to gender; men stereotypically love to receive power tools but women groan over new pots and pans.

Sometimes we receive a gift and fail to appreciate the magnitude of it; this is what happened with the gifts I've received from my Heavenly Father. I (modestly and humbly) know that I have the gift of writing. The spiritual gift list would say encouragement and exhortation, with some faith, teaching, and word of knowledge thrown in, which all comes together in the written word for me. The fact that the Lord allows me to speak to other hearts and share His word is a gift, one that I didn't ask for but appreciate and treasure nonetheless. But here is what I am discovering...

It is through using our gifts that we can more fully worship the Lord. I have taken a bit of a break from writing. Lack of focus, time, and honestly, desire, have taken their toll. Sitting down to write was falling in the same category exercise and eating right...something I should probably do but don't really feel like. But, in this time of not writing, I have also felt my connection to God growing weaker. Not that He went anywhere, but the awareness of Him was less consistent. I was feeling lukewarm, and we know how the Lord feels about lukewarm.

Thinking I was on to something here, I looked up verses pertaining to gifts and worship. In Romans 12:1, we are told to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual act of worship. Just a few verses down Paul teaches about the different gifts given and that we are all to use our gifts as members of one body. There is a connection between using the gifts given to us and our worship. When I fail to use the gifts God has given me as part of His body, I am limiting my ability to worship Him in all fullness, holy and acceptable.

I am looking forward to getting back on track, to moving from lukewarm back to on fire. Read along if you like...and know that as I write, I am engaged in worshiping the Lord through the gift He has given me.

What about you? Do you see the connection between the gifts the Lord has blessed you with and your worship of Him? What an amazing God, that He would give us gifts that would allow us to connect with Him as we use them.

Amazing.