Sound of Surviving Blog

God created all of us uniquely and perfectly. In Psalm 139:14, David says, “I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” I often look at myself in the mirror, and I don’t see that. I see something completely different from this description, that I don’t always like. But I was, and you were, created in our perfect and awesome God’s image, which does make us fearfully and wonderfully made.

Each person on Earth is irreplaceable. We were all created with a certain gift, each one different from everyone else’s. We all have some gift that God has given us to use to bring him glory, whether it be intelligence in different areas, athletic ability, creativity, musical ability, writing, or the way we interact with others around us (emotional intelligence).

We were called by God to use these gifts to serve him, as well as to help others. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 talks about how each of us varies in our gifts, but we are all called to use our gifts to serve God.

Sometimes, our gifts can come out of the circumstances we’ve endured. Maybe we have a condition or a disability, and have gone through our dark times so that we can help others with similar conditions through their dark times. But we won’t know if we don’t put our gifts into practice and use them to serve others & God.

1 Peter 4:10 also states, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as stewards of God’s varied grace.” We are to use these gifts not to serve ourselves, but to serve other people. To serve others, so that they might see God’s light and love in us. Each of us should try to be our own greatest at whatever gift God has given us, whether it be a sports player, singer, musician, etc. We owe it to the world, and to ourselves to shine as brightly as we can, doing the things that God gave us the talent and passion for. Everyone is born with exactly what they need to be great at something. But most people don’t even try to become great at using whatever gift they’ve been given. If you work hard and practice your gift, even if you’re not the best at it, at least you and everyone else will know that you tried. That’s more than a lot of people can say they’ve done. You don’t have to be the greatest at the gift that God has given you, but if you don’t use it, no one will ever see God’s light shining through you.

So use your gift, work at it, and let your light shine for all of the world to see.

1 Corinthians 12: 4-11: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”