Accountability for Gifts Given to Us by God

The Holy Bible

⁷ The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. ⁸ Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. ¹⁰ God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
¹¹ Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

(Bible Translation and Location: The New Living Translation - ! Peter 4:7-11)

Thoughts:

I believe that the easiest way for us to explain gifts from God, is to explain the attributes of one another, or at least those of a saint that we look up to and admire. However, I believe that the Holy Spirit, through Paul, is seriously wanting us to internalize the fact that God has blessed us each with a divine gift that we should seriously strive to use for Him every day. When we, individually, can be accountable for our own gift, don't you suppose that we might be less apt to find fault with the other person's use of their gift? Think about the way that we grill our children when we pick them up from school, on how good they were that day or how pleased the teacher was that day with their behavior or scholastic achievements. Wouldn't it be interesting for us, as adults, to grill each other on how we may have blessed someone that day because of the wonderful, and undeserved gifts we have been blessed with? Do you suppose that way too often we hide those talents in order not to be teased by our fellow workers or friends? Or do you suppose that way too often we undervalue the power of God and consider ourselves unworthy of any special gifts that God could really have blessed us with? In verse 11, Paul gives two examples of God's gifts, and how they might be used for His glory. May I challenge you today to look inside at all that God may have blessed you with, and be determined to use your gift(s) as an instrument of blessing to someone that you may come into contact with? Let's learn to acknowledge God's power and gifts, even through us, so that He may be praised and glorified by someone today, because of our obedience! Our God is holy, loving and caring, and deserves all of our praise! Let us bring glory to God today because of His gracious gifts to us!
 
Prayer:

Dear Jesus, I have so much to be thankful for, and I praise You with all my heart today! Thank You for giving me hope for a future with You in heaven! Thank You for considering me worthy of the gifts that You have blessed me with. Please forgive me for the times that I sit back and think that I have no gifts, and would just as soon see someone more gifted do the work that You have set forth for me to do. Please redirect my thoughts and my praise to You for all that You have given me, and for all that you have used me to do. Lord, I humbly ask that You bless me each day with Your power, and the encouragement to reach out and touch You, so that Your divine power might be evident in and through me. I believe that I may not be alone in finding excuses not to fully serve You with all of my heart and blessed by Your awesome hand. Therefore, I ask that You would bless all who might meditate on this devotional today, so that we each might be renewed in our trust and understanding of Your gifts that are so prevalent in our lives, and that we might freely allow those gifts to pass through us to be a blessing to all that we might come into contact with. People Need the Lord, but how will they know Him if we hide His divine nature from them. Please bless us with Your power, is my humble prayer today that I ask in the precious, and all powerful name of Jesus, my Lord, AMEN!

 
FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day's devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL!