Do you know what your spiritual gifts are?
If you had asked me a year ago, I don’t even know that I would have known what are considered spiritual gifts. Actually, I didn’t look up the definition of spiritual gifts until last week.
I just did a quick search to share some with you: they are found in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, and 1 Peter 4:11. Some of the gifts listed are: prophecy, speaking, teaching, exhorting (encouraging), giving, leadership, serving, mercy, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, etc.
Do you know the story of the talents?
I recently read a devotion entitled ‘the spiritual gift of teaching’. A light bulb went off in my head. Although I’ve considered myself a Christian much of my life, there are a lot of things I just don’t know. This was one of them. I reached out to one of my friends who I consider talented to ask what he considered to be my spiritual gift to see if he would say the same thing I’d already figured out. Sometimes it’s easier for others to see things in us, that it takes a while for us to finally get to that conclusion. Sure enough, he shared that he thought I had the gift of teaching.
You see, I’ve always been told that I have a knack for simplifying complicated topics. I’m not a teacher by profession, but it’s something that comes naturally to me and it’s worked with both my colleagues and clients. It had already come up twice the day before, so when I saw the topic: the spiritual gift of teaching’ my eyes were opened wide. I didn’t even know that was a spiritual gift, but it led me to looking up what other spiritual gifts are there.
I’ve also found that the more I’ve exercised one gift, the gift of writing about what God is teaching me and doing in my life, the more gifts I seem to have. All of a sudden, I feel like the person who was given 5 talents, that were doubled, because his gifts were used.
That was when the story of talents became real to me. It wasn’t about money, but it was about using my spiritual gifts for serving God. I can count off a few of my gifts from the list that have become stronger because I’ve started using them.
What’s your gift? Is that also your spiritual gift? And by the way, sometimes you will use your spiritual gift and not know the impact you are making, but God does, and that’s what matters. Keep trusting that He has given you those talents to further His kingdom.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us gifts, that are also spiritual gifts so that we can do the work that you have commissioned us to do. Help us to step out of our comfort zone so that you can use us and grow us into the people you would have us be and enrich the lives of those around us.