This week, I was reminded of gifts. Spiritual and otherwise. The gift of friendship. The gift of just being there and being able to know that others were sharing the stress and pain of life even if they were not physically present with me. A gift of knowing that when I was feeling battle worn that there people standing in the gap with me....for me, praying when I did not feel the strength to even issue an amen.
Often, we think of gifts as being physical. We think of gifts as something that have to be purchased. Something that we give a person to open. Maybe we used fancy, expensive wrapping paper....or in my case when in a pinch....comics have done the job. :)
There can be times in life when we don't feel gifted or even beneficial to the universe. It is at those precise moments though that God works His best.
I was also blessed this week to attend a healing room. We often think of physical issues that need healing. We often neglect or fail to take the time to recognize the full value of mental and emotional healing as well. Many times healing takes just that....time. We want an instant fix. Sometimes it is instant. Sometimes healing takes a bit longer or looks different than we expect.
In this moment though, I want to acknowledge the fact that we have each been given gifts that are unique to us. Gifts that we need to acknowledge to be able to help others and often though helping others, we are blessed as well.
1 Corinthians 12 7:11 (NIV) Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
1 Corinthians 12:25-26 (MSG) The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
Galatians 5:22 (NIV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
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