In a recent church service, I found myself looking at people on the worship team and started thinking I wish I had their talents and gifts. Then when the pastor started preaching, I thought the same thing. I started thinking of conferences I’ve been to and how when the speakers were in the lobby, people flocked to them. I saw others try to take selfies with the ones who led worship. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we tend to elevate platform gifts above all others. I wondered what would happen if we celebrated the Sunday School teachers or greeters the way we do others in the church. We’re really good at dismissing our own gifts as small or not important while envying the gifts in others that we don’t have.
Everywhere Jesus went, crowds followed. There were religious leaders who were jealous of His gift to draw a crowd without using guilt to keep them. I’m sure there were people who were jealous of the proximity of the disciples along with their giftings. In John 6, there was a crowd of over 5,000 people who had listened to Jesus preach all day. It was evening and Jesus asked the disciples to give them something to eat. They found a boy with the gift of being prepared and selflessness. He shared his five loaves of bread and two fish. In the hands of Jesus, it became more than enough for that crowd. We may not know his name, but we see that he was available with his gift when Jesus called on him.
1 Corinthians 12:7 says, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (NLT). Not only do you have God given gifts, they’re important to the Body of Christ. The rest of this chapter lists out the various giftings that God gives us and explains it in context of body parts. We all have different gifts with different functions so the Body can function. Don’t dismiss what you have to offer. It plays a vital role in the Kingdom of God. It may not be on a platform for others to see, but God sees it and He’s entrusted you with it for a reason. Use it in love to be helpful wherever God needs it. You never know when God will look around and you’re the only one who is standing there ready with what seems insignificant, but gets multiplied in the moment. Your gift matters.
Photo by Maxime Gauthier on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 