Don't neglect your gift!

Hi friends,

The New Testament has a lot to say about gifts, and by that I don't mean Christmas presents but the individual and different gifts that God has given to each of us in the Body of Christ. I would really encourage you to look up the word 'gift' in a concordance or online Bible program and study all the verses that tell us about God's gifts. It's an amazing study!

Here are a few things that Scripture says about gifts:

1. God's gifts are irrevocable (Rom 11:29) - that means that God isn't going to take them back or away from us.
2. We all have different gifts (Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 7:7) - these gifts are given by God's grace and we are to use them by God's grace.
3. We are not to be ignorant about God's gifts (1 Cor 12:1) - that's why God has given us so much instruction about them in his word!
4. It is the Holy Spirit who distributes all these different gifts (1 Cor 12:4)
5. We are not to neglect our gift (1 Tim 4:14)

When Paul writes to Timothy, his son in the faith, he urges him to not neglect the gift that was given to him by God. This is a word to all of us, because there is not a single person in the Body of Christ that has not been given at least one gift, whether it be teaching, hospitality, service, generosity, prophecy, leadership... or many others! God has generously given gifts to us - our responsibility is to use them, to nurture them and to invest in them. We are not to neglect them through lack of use, hiding them in obscurity out of insecurity, inferiority or fear. A good first step is to pray, asking God to show us what gifts he has given us and how we can be proactive in using and investing in them. For me, practice and study are two ways that I know I need to take care of the gifts God has given me. Those things take time, but it is totally worth it considering that God has entrusted those things to my life and he wants me to use them for his glory.

I created the background on this page using Distress Oxide inks (I applied a few layers of gesso to the page first, to prevent bleed-through). The leaves are from Give Thanks and the sweet gift stamp is from the new All Wrapped Up set. I coloured the leaves with Prismacolor pencils, while the gift image was stamped on watercolour paper then coloured with watercolours, cut out and glued onto the page. The verse was stamped using the fun Sunshine Girl Alpha.

Can I encourage you to think and pray about how you can 'not neglect' the gifts God has given you? Ask God to show you and maybe talk with godly friends about this too - they may have some ideas of how you can invest in and use your gifts. God has uniquely gifted you to shine for his glory!

Grace and peace be with you.

x Amy x