It’s a gift?

 

Yesterday, we studied Romans chapter 12. Go read it if it’s been awhile. It talks a lot about gifts. The interesting thing is that even though we give spiritual gifts a ranking, that doesn’t seem to be the case for the Spirit. Instead, the priority for gifts is how we interact with them. 

It reminds me that in order to be a blessing to others, we have to take time to be deeply rooted in Christ. Even though that feels like it should be a natural by product of serving the church, it’s not. When our focus is completely on pouring out into others, we can easily miss out on our personal need to be filled by Christ. 

I’m going to tell you something that no body every mentioned in seminary, taking time to read the Bible and practice other spiritual disciplines for no other purpose than to spend time with God can change every aspect of our ministry. In case you missed the important part of that sentence, for no other purpose than to spend time with God. Not to prepare for Bible study, not to get ideas for the upcoming women’s retreat, not to complain about Gertrude and her awful cottage cheese salad, just to be with God. 

We can get so caught up in using our gifts to help others grow that we neglect spending time with the gift giver. When we take a few minutes out of our day just to be with God then the ability to use our gifts with enthusiasm, imagination, and love becomes second nature. If we’re just pushing forward with the goal of service things can go haywire. 

Being rooted in Christ helps us not only be joyful about our spiritual gifts, it helps us reach the those that need it the most, and it helps us from abusing those gifts. So, take a moment or two today, dust off your favorite spiritual discipline and hang out with the gift giver.