BE EAGER AND EXCEL

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

1 Corinthians 14:12

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Lord has imparted gifts on all believers, gifts He intends for them to identify and then use to His glory and to fulfill the work He wants done in His kingdom here on earth.

This is a truth we find the Apostle Paul sharing with the Christians in Corinth and with us reading his letter today.

Now, I don’t know about you but when I know I am going to receive a gift, it’s exciting, even after a lot of years of living. This building excitement before birthdays and Christmases started when I was just a child. My parents always made these days very special and I was lavished with wrapped presents and foods centered on the occasion, especially my favorite kind of cake decorated up birthday-style with the right numbers of candles to blow out. And then there was Christmas morning when I would wander downstairs to see brightly colored wrapping on items I hoped matched what was on my list to Santa.

Maybe these memories still hold true for you as well.

Well, just because we grow older, we can still find thrill in receiving things that we enjoy and can use, and what better gifts could we ever receive than one’s given to us by the Lord Himself? I can’t think of any but here’s the question.

Do we hold the same enthusiasm and anticipation as we wait for the Lord’s gifts as we do for the gifts the world offer?

It’s a question that challenges us and rightfully so because as we look at today’s verse from 1 Corinthians 14, we find the scriptures telling us the mindset we should have for the Lord’s gifts, granted to us by His Holy Spirit, and then how we are to use those gifts we are to highly expect. Look again at these words here:

So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. 1 Corinthians 14:12

Note that we are to first be eager for the gifts of the Spirit, like the Corinthian Christians Paul is writing to. When we look up the definition of the word “eager” and apply it to this verse, we find that we should display a waiting that is marked by enthusiastic or impatient desire or interest. In other words, we desire the Lord’s gifts so much that it’s hard to wait with patience, just like waiting to open those gifts on Christmas morning. This is the level of zeal we are to exhibit as we long for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come upon us.

Okay, so what are we to do once that eagerly awaited moment comes, the moment when the Holy Spirit grants us gifts from our Lord?

God’s word tells us that we are to excel in using them to “build up the church”. In other words, we aren’t to just do the bare minimum when it comes to applying our gifts to the Lord’s work. Rather, we are to seek to use them to their utmost benefit, to use what the Lord has granted in superior fashion to accomplish and achieve great things in His name as we benefit the church and its ministry work, the ministry work the Lord wants carried out.

Be eager for the Lord’s gifts and then excel in using them once He gives them.

This is the message from the Word of God for us today. Now it’s up to us, the members of the church, to put them into practice.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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