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Gifts We Fail to Use By Robert Berendt When we get the wonderful gifts for which we pray, do we really appreciate them... or abuse them?
s a minister, many people tell me about the things for which they are praying. Jesus taught us to ask for our daily bread. He also said whatever we ask in His name, God will give (John 14:14; Matthew 21:22). God does love to give gifts to His children--precious and wonderful gifts. When we do not have them, we deeply desire them. But when we receive them, it seems we all too often abuse them. What Solomon did not have Consider King Solomon. He was a young man when God appointed him to the office of king, and 1 Kings 3:5-13 records the wonderful, humble prayer of Solomon at that time. Instead of riches, he asked for wisdom to serve the people. God not only gave the gift of wisdom that King Solomon had asked for, He also added many other blessings and gifts. However, God did not add the willpower and character that would ensure that Solomon would always properly use the gifts God had given. We humans have to develop that character. That is our responsibility, a small way of showing we really do appreciate the gifts.
Solomon ought to have been working for the betterment of the lives of his people. Instead, huge taxes and demands on the people for his pet construction projects resulted in turning the nation against the king. Solomon's decisions were not wise and godly in many areas. He turned to the "wisdom" of this world and away from the wisdom that God made available. God had told Solomon that the blessings were tied in with Solomon's obedience (1 Kings 9:4), yet 1 Kings 11 records some of the wrong choices Solomon made by neglecting the wisdom God gave him. Because of these sins, God took most of the tribes of Israel away from his son, and Solomon lived to experience many problems in his land. Spiritual gifts The church in Corinth is another example of abused and neglected gifts. The first 11 verses of 1 Corinthians 12 mention some spiritual gifts God gave to the church in Corinth, such as the "word of wisdom through the Spirit" and "the word of knowledge through the same Spirit." However, throughout the book of 1 Corinthians Paul cited many problems in that congregation. There were divisions, factions and gross misconduct. In chapter 14, we can see the gift of tongues was abused. As a loving parent, God withdraws His gifts when abuse occurs. Those who are parents know this is the right and necessary thing to do--you can't keep giving the car keys to a son who drives recklessly. Luke 9:1 tells of the time when Jesus gave the gift of healing and the ability to recognize and cast out demons to His 12 disciples, including Judas. Others were also sent out with great gifts in the next chapter. It was an amazing experience for these men. They were to take no spare shoes, no money and no provisions. God made sure they were supplied with everything they needed for the trip. After all this, after seeing countless blessings and miracles, how could Judas become such a betrayer of his Friend? How is it that humans can receive great and precious gifts from God and yet go so far off track? How can we discredit the Creator of the universe with our errors and petty acts? What is the source of our lack of appreciation? How can we abuse the gifts God gives? And yet, many do just that.
Why is there a constant force we must resist in order to remain on the "straight and narrow"? Why are we tested every day? Why must we be on guard and examine ourselves on a regular basis? Where the problem began: Lucifer It may come as a surprise to hear that God also filled Lucifer with wisdom. Ezekiel 28 describes some of the gifts God gave to this wonderful angelic being that He lovingly created.
Ezekiel explains in verses 17 to 19 that Lucifer was proud of his own beauty: "You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor." Lucifer allowed vanity and pride to cloud his reason. The gifts God gives are always good. He cannot give bad gifts to anyone because He is God. He lets us decide what to do with these gifts. Since Lucifer made his wrong choice and became Satan, the adversary, he works to influence us to make the wrong choices too. He wants us to neglect and abuse the gifts of God.
When the focus is on the self, we move away from godliness. Christ's focus was outward--He came to lay down His life for this world. His followers and all who partake of heavenly gifts are to become like Him. Thankfully, we humans can be forgiven our weaknesses and errors, because of God's greatest gift--His Son who came to die as a Savior for us. But although we have a Savior, we are not freed from fighting sin to show we want to be like our Savior who detests sin. We need to constantly remind ourselves of this wonderful gift. If we should ever lose our sense of appreciation, then we too would have no further gifts from God. Use the gifts God gives wisely and use them to His glory. Copyright 2002 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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Origin of article "Gifts We Fail to Use"
Keywords: talents gifts Lucifer spiritual gifts
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