There are beautifully wrapped
gifts under our Christmas tree. We look at them and our boys wonder which ones
are for whom. (Bev uses a number code so the recipient is unknown until
Christmas morning.) Until we distribute, unwrap, assemble, and take them into
our hands they are just for show! About 48 hours from now, they will become useful
to us. I hope that they will be useful for other people, too.
God has resourced you, too. Are
you taking the gifts He provides and using them to make this world a better
place? Are you Christ-focused in their use? The Word says, "The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and
disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love
for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home
with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of
spiritual gifts. Use them well to
serve one another." (1 Peter 4:7-10, NLT) Broaden your understanding of the concept of a
‘spiritual gift.’ As this passage teaches, gifts include more than preaching,
singing, or praying in an unknown tongue!
Buying a friend a cup of coffee can become a spiritual gift, if it is an
occasion to encourage her in the things of the Lord. Serving a meal to family
can be an occasion of spiritual ministry, too.
Recently the Lord has called
me to give gifts of love with no hope of reciprocal effort, to provide and
serve without expectation of a word of thanks. I am surprised at how difficult
it can be to offer myself to those who feel so entitled that they believe what
I do for them is unworthy of any appreciation. My own self love has been
revealed to me! Had you asked me a year ago if I were a selfish person, I would
have denied it. Now I know better and I realize, in a much deeper way, how much
I need the Cross to bring death to Self so that I will offer my gifts with joy
and with focus on His reward rather than the thanks of those I ‘serve.’ The Holy Spirit has shown me that gifts
offered with even a small influence of Self are quickly corrupted. Our service,
if touched with the smallest bit of self-interest, becomes manipulative or even
an occasion for bitterness when the expectations we attach to it go unrealized.
In this Season of gifts and
giving, I want to encourage you to think of what you receive (from God and
others) as resources for service, not simply as things to enrich yourself. “God has given each of you a gift… use it
well!” And, I urge you to submit
your service to Him, first! Ask for a pure heart, for a willingness to operate
in secret, joyful in the work, not seeking reward or recognition. Is this not
how Jesus served us? How humbling to realize that He loved and served us when
we were ignoring and offending Him!
I offer this benediction to
you today, as this will be my last CoffeeBreak column until the New Year. Thank
you for giving me the privilege of sharing my thoughts and His Word with you
each day. Receive this word from the Word and live in the promise of spiritual
power it contains.
"I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family
in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know
this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all
the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we
ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever
and ever! Amen."
(Ephesians 3:14-21, NIV)
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