I haven't written a post in several months. Every time I come here to write, I just stare at the screen...completely speechless.
I'm still here. Moving, living and breathing. God is working in me and my family. He is continuing to teach me...to reveal things to me. It is what I refer to as "year #30." Last night at Bible Study, we had a discussion about spiritual gifts. I've always been told that we all have one. I've wondered what mine is. I believe that my gift is the gift of compassion. However, I don't see that one specifically mentioned in the lists in the Bible.
How do you think we know our gifts? How are they developed?
3 comments:
I think the gift of mercy (which is mentioned in the Bible, Romans 12:8) would be the gift of compassion.
You ask a good question. I think we should just go about doing what the Lord gives us to do, and our spiritual gifts will come out naturally. We will know more about what they are when others see them and affirm them in us. Meanwhile, I think we do more good when we look for and affirm spiritual gifts in others, rather than in ourselves.
I think part of the problem, and the reason why we are so unfamiliar with our spiritual gifts, is because of pride and jealousy. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this (as I have observed different churches and evaluated how healthy or unhealthy they seem to be) and actually have a heart desire to write a book about it. You see, people get so focused on their own gifts that they neither recognize nor validate the gifts of others. In fact, I believe that one of the crippling sins of the church is when certain people decide that they have a particular gift, and that their particular gift is The Most Important Gift, and proceed to structure everything to facilitate the expression of their gift, at the exclusion of others' gifts and with a total disregard for loving and affirming others who would be beautifully complimenting them if all were going according to design.
Hahaha. My soapbox. I think it is SO IMPORTANT to apply all of Romans 12-14 to our spiritual gifts. We must remember to consider others as more important than ourselves, and walk in LOVE.
Totally agree with you.
I was just thinking about it since we were studying it. We both know that all parts of the body have their intended purpose.
An eye cannot say to the hand,"I have no need of you." 1 Corinthians 12:21
Good to see you here again! I just recently started blogging again–AGAIN–too! Hope you'll come visit.
I agree with Ruth, that often it is others who see our gifts better than we do ourselves, and perhaps that is how it should be. As long as what we are doing is for the Lord, that is a gift–not only our gift, but also a gift to him. "Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23-24
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