Using What You’ve Got
I really wish I could paint. I have the idea in my head, I can see what I want the picture to look like, but somewhere between my brain and my hands it all gets lost. Thankfully for me, there are people who can paint beautifully, and I can usually find a picture to illustrate the thought I’ve had. And if we all painted, who would write music, write great stories, explain scientific principles, cook, dust, be available to talk or pray? All of us have gifts, just different ones – they are all equally valuable.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Spiritual Gifts
12 My friends, you asked me about spiritual gifts. 2 I want you to remember that before you became followers of the Lord, you were led in all the wrong ways by idols that cannot even talk. 3 Now I want you to know that if you are led by God’s Spirit, you will say that Jesus is Lord, and you will never curse Jesus.
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit. 5 There are different ways to serve the same Lord, 6 and we can each do different things. Yet the same God works in all of us and helps us in everything we do.
7 The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. 8 Some of us can speak with wisdom, while others can speak with knowledge, but these gifts come from the same Spirit. 9 To others the Spirit has given great faith or the power to heal the sick 10 or the power to work mighty miracles. Some of us are prophets, and some of us recognize when God’s Spirit is present. Others can speak different kinds of languages, and still others can tell what these languages mean. 11 But it is the Spirit who does all this and decides which gifts to give to each of us.
Equally we all have different spiritual gifts. God has given each of us a way we can serve him and those around us.
What gift has God given to you? Are you using it?
I can sit and wish I had a different gift, or I can get on with using the ones I’ve got.
Today, I offer to God, the gift he has given me, and ask him to use it.
Thank you Lord
for the gifts you have given me,
that make me who I am.
May I not sit around
wishing I had a different gift,
but use the ones I have
for you
and those around me.
Today Lord,
I offer myself,
all I am
and ask that you will use my gifts
Pam's Perambulation 
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