Same God

Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

Have you ever heard someone sing and think, "I wish I could sing like him or her"? Have you ever read a book and thought, "I wish I could write like this author"? Have you ever watched a baseball game and wished you could swing the bat (let alone hit the ball) like that player? Did you experience any "athlete envy" while watching the Olympics? I've had occasions where I see what an artist can produce and wish I could draw/paint/create like that person. (I'm trying to remember a time when someone said, "Boy, I sure wish I could preach like you..." but I don't recall....anyway....)

Envy or jealousy is called the "green-eyed monster" because it has to do with SEEING someone else using their gifts or abilities and DESIRING to have what they have. It has to do with longing for someone else's gifts...while despising your own. Or not even using your own. Maybe not even recognizing what you can do as being a gift from God. To the green-eyed monster in us, Paul says this: stop it! To each of us, God has given gifts that he intends for us to use. It's not about longing for or envying someone else's gifts. God has given those gifts to them, for that person to use. You use your gifts. Together we will accomplish more if we all use the gifts we have been given and stop worrying about what gifts other people have.

Do you remember the last walk Jesus took with his friend Peter, at the end of the Gospel of John (John 21)? John is worried and fretting over what might happen to John (who is following along behind). Jesus says to him, basically, "Stop worrying about him. You follow me and we'll get along just fine."

Paul puts it this way: it's the same God who gives you gifts, who gave your neighbor gifts, who gave that superstar gifts. The same God decided how you could best be used in his kingdom, and he made the same choices for every single person. The gifts God has given you are not an accident or a leftover. You are who you are for a purpose, for a reason. So get busy, because the same God who expects much out of that other person also expects much out of you. Your role may be (will be) different, but it is no less essential in what God wants to do in the world.

Is your gift visiting shut-ins? Then visit shut-ins. No one may ever know what you have done, but do it to the glory of God. Is your gift preparing a meal so the little ones can be fed? Then do it to the glory of God? Is your gift speaking, preaching, singing, leading? Do it to the glory of God and be careful not to let it become about your glory. If your gift prayer? Then pray with all your heart for those in need. Whatever your gifts are, use them to God's glory and you'll be amazed how God will then use you for the kingdom.