Daily Devotions: Grace Gifts

At our monthly Session meeting last night, one of our elders gave the devotional. She read from a similar passage of Paul’s on this subject of gifts, using the new Message version of the Bible. The elder reminded us that we all had different abilities and skills which blended together to form a strong body of spiritual leaders in the church. She also told us that our talents and resources were given from God not for ourselves, but to be used as channels of His grace in and to the world. It was a good lesson and one that we all need to keep remembering, reviewing, and applying in our lives.

Bible Verse of the Day

Romans 12:5 …so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Perhaps today or over this weekend, you will find yourself in a situation where your gifts can be employed on behalf of someone else. Perhaps God will lead you to a certain place, at a certain time, to use your skills, experience, and resources in ways that will show God’s compassion and grace, mercy and love to other people. Whatever that moment is and wherever it may occur, pray that God will open your eyes and spirit to such an opportunity. Be His hands and feet, His voice and heart to those who need to be reassured, embraced, and encouraged.

Who knows? By doing this you may help someone else to reconnect to God, so that they may also use their grace gifts to help others and expand the Kingdom of God.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You call upon us to serve You in the world, to help other people, and to love our neighbors. Help us this weekend to apply Your lessons of love and to show Your compassion and grace through the gifts we share and the support that we give. In Your Holy name, we pray. Amen.

By the Spirit

Today, we will all experience situations that will cause us to react badly or respond spiritually, The choice is ours. Paul gives us guidance for those frustrating moments in his letter to a young church.

Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Do you ever get the feeling that the first group of Christians must have been a bunch of really hard-to-please people? In my head, I’ve got this nostalgic notion that the New Testament Christians were holy saints, who peacefully, nobly, and humbly went to their deaths in the Coliseum. I’ve thought about them as being incredible saints and holy people, whose perfection is the ideal that we lowly 21st century Christians must attain.

However, when I read some of Paul’s letters, I get the impression that their churches were full of ordinary people, whose personalities and characteristics often caused conflicts or dysfunction in the family of faith. Why on earth would Paul have to implore the church at Galatia not to be conceited, aggressive, and envious, if it wasn’t already there in the life and work of that church?

Initially, it makes me feel better because I realize that Christianity is always going to be imperfect and that conflict is inevitable in any faith community. Envy, pride, and belligerence are human traits that we try to master and control, but we cannot do it on our own. That’s why Paul urges the Galatians to live by the Spirit, and not by human weaknesses. I may feel better because I am no better than the first Christians, and vice versa, but both they and I have a need to try to be better Christians. And the only way that is going to happen is by surrendering our pride, envy and antagonism to the Spirit, in order for those weaknesses to be replaced with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

As far as applying this is concerned, there are going to be moments today where we will either react humanly to a situation or respond spiritually. The choice is ours. Hopefully, we will all decide to surrender ourselves to the Spirit’s bidding.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, You bring us great comfort and strength, wonderful guidance and godly counsel. Restrain our pride and capacity for wanting to get mad and even with those who displease or dislike us. Grant us patience and self-control in those frustrating circumstances that we may face today. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.