August 27, 2024 Why Spiritual Gifts?
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Why Spiritual Gifts?
Each person is given something to do that shows who God is:
Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits…
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church:
every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t,
the parts we see and the parts we don’t.
If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing.
If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this.
1 Corinthians 12:7, 25-27, The Message
I spent more than 30 years in a leadership position in various organizations. Annual performance reviews and bonus allocations worked similarly wherever I worked: the corporation valued some departments more than others, thus giving them more dollars to allocate; department heads were then required to stack rank and incent individuals according to the extent to which they met performance goals.
Even when everyone exceeded expectations, they were still stack-ranked by how much they did and incented accordingly. In such environments, one’s competitive nature and drive to get ahead could overshadow any desire for collaboration and cooperation.
That may be the best process our human nature can design for business, but that is not how it works in God’s economy. Paul intended his letter to set the Corinthians straight about their bickering over who’s spiritual gifts were the most important. He noted that:
- Each of us is given something to do that shows who God is. (No exceptions!)
- God doles out spiritual gifts, to be coupled with our talents and resources, and used in such a way that everyone benefits, that is, for the common good and not individual gain.
- All spiritual gifts are equally valuable, work interdependently with one another, and therefore are each indispensable to the whole.
- Their purpose is to build up and unite the church body as one under the Lordship of Christ and for the glory of God.
Be Still and Reflect: Consider the implications of these characteristics if everyone accepted and directed their gifting for the common good of the whole. How have you experienced the Holy Spirit directing you to build up or bring unity in your family, workplace, church, and community?
Pray: Gracious Lord, thank You for adopting me into Your one church, where I am accepted as I am and where I can grow to become the person You created me to be. Reveal to me the work You have for me using my unique combination of spiritual gifts, talents, and resources. Give me the courage to step into that work wherever and however Your Spirit directs me, so that all people might one day be united under the Lordship of our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray, Amen.
By His Grace,
Gloria Ashby
Lay Leader