What Gifts?
Whenever we are asked to give something to someone, we usually worry that we will end up losing that thing. For example, if we are asked to contribute some money towards a cause, most of us will start by consulting our budgets – and taking a mental inventory of what will remain after we give what is required.
Rest assured that this is not about the money. It is about our God-given gifts – and money is just a tiny percentage of what we can offer. For real. If you are dumbfounded about this, take a moment and think about everything that you have ever owned, material or otherwise.
You will notice that you didn’t actually own anything to begin with. Everything under your name was already here when you came to the scene. Everything, from your material possessions, to intangible things like peace, wisdom, time and virtually everything good – was given to us.
Why should we learn how to share the gifts that we received?
In 1st Timothy 6:17 – all good things around us are sent from God. These mere keystrokes conveying the Good News are all attributed to the Maker of all things being. And so is you screen’s flickering light. And all the breath permeating our living spaces. It is by the Grace of God that we have all these beautiful gifts. So if what we have is from God, why don’t we learn how to share the gifts we received?
So, Now that we have all these Wonderful Things – What do we do with them?
Asking all the right questions.
The most obvious answer to this question is to use them. Remember the Parable of the Talents? The servant who just sat on his talents turned out to be the foolish one while the other servant who used his share of the talents well received favor from the master.
In our lives, we can draw an important conclusion – God is the Master, and the talents are our gifts. According to the Word of God, people who just sit pretty on their talents will lose them in the long run. Those who use their talents gain from doing so. However, in our day-to-day lives, we must choose wisely how to use these good gifts. Below, we highlight how to share the gifts we received.
How Best to Use Our Gifts – Sharing them with others
Each of us is unique and blessed with different gifts. Some have very little of one gift while others are endowed with a little bit too much of the same. Some people have all the wealth you could ever dream of, but do not have much time. Others, who may be dirt poor, have all the time in the world, so to speak.
Between the time and the money – we have all other sorts of gifts. Here are some ways to share them:
* Pray for someone who needs your prayers, like the sick. To make it even better, visit the sick in hospital, and come bearing gifts and well wishes from others.
*Smile, be graceful and patient with people you meet every day.
*Interact with someone who is lonely – for instance, invite them to share a meal with you!
*Do you have a special talent? Use that talent creatively, so that your fellows will be touched by the Grace of God.
*Forgive those who wronged you. Let go of old grudges, help them out in times of need.
* Volunteer with your professional expertise where most needed, and help someone out.
* Humbly babysit your next door neighbor.
As you can see, there are endless ways of sharing our God-given gifts, and it is only a matter of doing the right thing with whatever little you have to offer. How we share the gifts we received depends on how much responsibility we take for sharing them in the first place. Perhaps the best way to know how much to give of yourself is to pray about it. What do you think? Now go on and be blessed!
