We are all called upon by the Lord to do His work, and each one of our tasks is different.
As children of God, we have each been blessed with a spiritual gift or gifts, that in hope, we use to better our church, our faith, our peers, and ourselves.
This week I was reading through 1 Corinthians 12 about spiritual gifts and unity and diversity in the body. The truth in those words is astounding! What if we were all made the same? What if we all had the same spiritual gifts? What if every church ran the same way with the same ideas and beliefs? Would it be a “real church” then? How are we supposed to do God’s work if that were so? And how absolutely boring would life be?!
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body-whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free-and we were all given the one spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14.
God calls all of us to do His will. Though we each have a different task, we are all united by one fact: We are made to live for Him, in Christ, as imperfect humans. That is what unites us, no matter our differences. Now lets take the facts that unite us and the differences that define us, and lets apply them to the church. What do you get?
You get one body unified by Christ that possesses a diverse, unique set of personalities, gifts, ideas, and beliefs that can be applied toward church growth, missions, sermons, church groups, charities, children, life groups, and the list could go on and on and on. Each part is special and unique and carries its own weight, no matter how big or small. Imagine the lives we all could touch, each in a unique way, because none of us are made the same. How absolutely amazing!
“Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in Fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” 1 Corinthians 12:15-20.
I’m sure all of this to all of you is all common sense. HOWEVER, have you taken a spiritual gifts test? And if so, when was the last time you applied those gifts to glorify Christ? Read 1 Corinthians 12, I mean really read it, study it, meditate on it, whatever. Just get involved in it.
Feed Yourself, Girl! with 1 Corinthians 12, and get in touch with a side you either don’t know or have forgotten.
1 Corinthians 12:27 (NIV)
”Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
feed yourself, girl 