It’s Christmas time...the most wonderful time of the year! During this time I love nothing more than to give gifts to the ones I love. I put so much time and energy into selecting just the right gift for each person...one I just know they will love and hopefully cherish. Needless to say, I can’t help but have my feelings hurt when I find out a gift I’ve given has been put away unused or even returned for something else.
Would you even think about doing this with a gift that God personally selected for you?
Natural talents are the abilities to do special things (given to everyone). Spiritual gifts are special abilities given to every believer. I have often heard spiritual gifts defined as a supernatural ability to develop a God-given natural talent.
A spiritual gift isn’t an instant level of ability, but the capacity to develop an ability. It often
takes time to mature and develop into the full effectiveness God intended. It is our obligation to mature our gifts.
“Do not neglect your gift...Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” (1Timothy 4:14-15)
“Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (1 Corinthians 12:14-20)
If you’d like to discover your spiritual gift, here is a link to an assessment that will help guide you.