A RICH VARIETY

 

September 11, 2024

My father, my God, I'm in your hand; may I rejoice above all things in simply being there. Help me to learn what it means to love you with my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Amen.

1 Peter 4:10

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another”

Yesterday in our devotional we looked at the phrase in our verse that tells us that each of us have been the recipient of spiritual gift(s) by God. We placed emphasis on the fact that these gifts are spiritual in nature, and are ours through God's grace. We don't earn them, God purposely by His Holy Spirit gives them to us. Let's explore deeper into the topic of Spiritual Gifts today, expanding on our discussions so far this week. We'll explore the significance of the teaching in our verse that these Spiritual Gifts are "from his great variety of spiritual gifts." 

So, we could say that serving one another involves variety. 1 Peter says, “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another” (NLT). Let’s talk about this variety.

Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 give us two list of spiritual gifts. (I invite you to read them if have the time) Some of those gifts include the gift of service, the gift of teaching, the gift of encouragement, the gift of giving, the gift of leadership, the gift of kindness, the gift of faith, the gift of discernment and a few others. Actually, there are about 20 different gifts listed in Romans and 1 Corinthians. They come in a variety.

Spiritual gifts come in a variety of styles. You can take two believers with the gift of teaching and their style of teaching will be different. You can take two believers with the gift of leadership and their leadership style will be different. You can take two believers with the gift of kindness and their style of kindness will be different.

Spiritual gifts are given for a variety of needs. This is why one believer with the gift of teaching in their style meets the need of group A rather than that group B, but another believer with the gift of teaching in their style meets the need group C. Spiritual gifts are given for a variety of needs. This is why the person with the gift of leadership is designed to lead Group A, but not Group B. But Group B needs this other believer with the gift of leadership to lead them. Variety of needs.

Spiritual gifts serve a multitude of purposes. While they generally share common objectives within the church, each gift also fulfills its distinct role. The gift of teaching imparts God's truth to believers. The gift of encouragement uplifts those who are disheartened. The gift of leadership propels believers onward.

I hope this helps us to recognize that Spiritual Gifts come in "rich variety" and are given by God's full knowledge of each one of us. They are personalized, based on the purpose that God has for us to fulfill. Now this overwhelms me, think about how intimately we are known by our creator!! That our Spirtitual Gifts are given to us based on God's knowledge of you and me. Maybe, that is part of what Psalm 139 means when it says "we are fearfully and wonderfully made." (?) 

LET US PRAY

Lord God, you are the Builder of all things, we are truly blessed by the ministry of your Holy Spirit within us. We are so grateful that through the power of your Holy Spirit, we can walk as children of the light. Your Spirit enables us to live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We thank you that you’ve also given each of us different gifts of the Spirit, so we can serve each other and build up your church. Amen.