Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-19
Memory Verse: “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased” (1 Corinthians 12:18).
I read about a respected Bible teacher who said: “Because my family is so large, we draw names to see who gets a present. One Christmas when I opened my present, I was disappointed…then I looked at my twin brother who got two nice gifts. Sensing my disappointment, my wife came over to me and said, “Don’t worry. When we get home, we’ll exchange it for something you like better.” This shows what also happens in the Body of Christ. Sometimes we open the gifts God has given us and immediately run to someone else to see what he or she received. When we look at our gift, we are unhappy and immediately think, ‘I know what to do, I’ll swap it for something I like better.’ That’s why we have so many people running around claiming to be who they are not – an apostle or a prophet or a teacher etc.; they are only gift-swapping.
You are not to determine what gift(s) God gives you; it is His to decide, 1 Corinthians 12:11&18, NCV, says, “The Spirit decides what to give each person” and “…God put all the parts…in the body as He wanted them.” It may, however, take some time for you to recognise your gift and start operating in it, but, instead of coveting another person’s gift, be thankful for your own and ask God to use it to bless as many people as possible. Beloved, avoid gift-swapping, use the gift God gave you.
Prayer Points:
1. Holy Spirit, help me to recognise and use my gift(s) to the glory of God.
2. Father, deliver me from lack of contentment and gift-swapping.