Daily Devotional for Friday 20th September
Live like you mean it as you practice your spiritual gifts!
Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Not only do we get to belong to God’s great big God family, we each have a role to fill in it. Chapter 2, verse 21 calls our God family a holy temple, with Jesus as the cornerstone. We are one, we are family together, but we are unique in God’s eyes and each serve one another and Him in our own way which God purposed beforehand, each a brick or stone that builds up the complete building.
The passage today in chapter 4 talks about this. We each have roles in God’s kingdom work: some are appointed/called by God to be apostles, some are prophets, some are evangelists, some are pastors and some are teachers of the word. God also gives us spiritual gifts and the faith and grace (v.7) needed for them to use as we function in these roles.
You can usually tell who is which role by what they won’t stop talking about! If you ever get into a conversation with an evangelist, you’ll know it, as they express their passion for sharing the gospel of Jesus with everyone they meet! God needs some of us to function like that.
We all laugh about once a teacher, always a teacher, but it’s true. If teaching is someone’s calling and gifting, they often break out into teacher mode. When this comes to teaching the word of God, though, the more, the better, as they accurately teach from the Word!
Prophetic people feel the urgency to speak what they feel God is saying, and the church needs to hear what God is saying! Whereas, pastoral people want to care for people and help meet their needs. And apostles are all about seeing the church has good foundations on the gospel of Jesus and on the truths in God’s word – these are not only church-planting people but people who are concerned for the spiritual health of a church’s foundation.
We all have a role to play. Verse 12 says these roles and giftings aren’t for our benefit alone, they are for:
· Equipping the saints/believers to work for God’s kingdom
· To build up the body of Christ (the local church as well as the big Church)
· So we all get to the place of having unity of faith and a knowledge of Jesus as the Son of God that leads us to a place of maturity – the fullness of Christ
This means we need each other, in our roles, functioning in our spiritual giftings, flourishing together spiritually, to be a complete building. We need God’s help in this, but we also need to be committed to working towards this end, together.
Time to reflect…
1 Corinthians 12 also talks about this subject. It’s useful to compare the passages. Romans 12 is also a chapter that discusses this subject. The emphasis, again, is not solely on ourselves in the roles God wants us to function in, but on how we can all work together, encouraging one another, and blessing one another, for the greater good.
What’s your role and are you filling it?
How can you help encourage someone else in their role?
Pause to pray…
Dear Father God, life with You is never dull! Thank You for making us alive spiritually, for making us part of Your great big God family, and for preparing beforehand works that we can do with You. Help us to know what those are, to find our place in the body, and while honouring others in their roles, do our own bit for the kingdom, by the power and grace of Your Spirit within us, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
