Our God-Given Gifts

I'm just gonna share with you from the book I'm reading called Discover Your God-Given Gifts.

"I remember in my teens how I would hear a different sermon each week and try so hard to do what the preacher said. One Sunday he would preach on the importance of prayer, and all the following week I would pray strenuously. The next week he would preach on having a servant's heart, and I'd set out to serve anyone and everyone. Next might come tithe Sunday, when I'd determine to increase my giving. Or there'd be a sermon on love and I would wipe my brow from exhaustion, take a deep breath, and walk out the church door determined to be loving even if it killed me.

It almost did. I was trying so hard to be all of these things that I was approaching burnout. I was aiming at some sort of "super-Christian" ideal that was impossible to achieve. I really believed I had to be outstanding in all these areas if I were going to please God. And when I failed, as I had to, I was a ripe target for guilt and self-condemnation.

I was so relieved, when I first discovered the variety of motivational gifts, to find that I did not have to be or do everything well, but that I could concentrate on those areas where I had been gifted by God. It also released me to appreciate the very different giftedness in others.

And third, Paul emphasizes our mutual dependence in the Body of Christ. We really need each other. No member of Christ's Body can go off on a desert island and be a victorious Christian all by himself. God has purposely made us so that we are incomplete without the interaction and ministry of our brothers and sisters."

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

Romans 12:4-5

It's good to know we don't all have to behave just alike. It's okay to be different. Second, we can see in the analogy that we don't have to "do it ourselves." We do our part. Others for their part. Together we get the job done. Together we do the work of the ministry of our Lord.