Verse: 1 Peter 4:10
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
Devotion
Today’s verse is written “To God’s elect, strangers in the world.” In other words, Peter was addressing the early Christians 2000 years ago, which also contains truth for you and me today. He was telling them to use their gifts that they have received from God to serve others. Are you doing that? Am I?
The first assumption that this verse makes is that we believe that our gifts come from God. How do you feel about that? Romans 12:4-8 talks about the body of Christ being made up of many members, each having different gifts, just like our physical body. There it talks about the gifts of faith, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing, leadership, and mercy. Do any of these gifts sound like ones that you have? How did you get them?
So if you believe that God gave you the gifts you have, then you can start to see that God gave them to you for a reason. And Peter is saying that the reason is to serve others, to administer God’s grace. God has decided to work through us to show grace and mercy and love and compassion to others so that they can see Him and come to Him. He has given gifts and power to each of us to make that happen. We just need to be in the world interacting with others and using our gifts to serve others.
So back to the original question. Are you doing that? Does this verse challenge you to look at your life and see if it lines up with this scripture? What would it mean for you to use your gifts to serve others? No one can answer that but you. But what a world we would be living in if everyone did that!
Prayer
Lord, help me to see the possibilities for using the gifts you have given me to serve those in need around me. Give me a desire to be used by you. Help me to really see those that need you and help me to love them.