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Gift of God

             For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (II Timothy 1:6-7)

 

            I know I’ve expounded on this topic before, but it came up as the passage of the day, and it’s time to take a break from the topic of forgiveness.  So, here we go again.

            Timothy, and by extension, we, are to fan into flame the gift of God. Some point out that this means that every person who comes to Christ has a gift. We may have several responses:

            Look at me, I’m gifted! Aren’t you impressed?

            Oh no, God didn’t give me a gift. I can’t do anything special. Aren’t I unimpressive? Don’t you pity me? At least, please don’t expect anything from me.

            Oh, it’s not me, it’s God! Aren’t I humble?

            But there may be a problem with all of these. Each involves a view of “gift” that may not be accurate. Years ago, I formed the opinion (I don’t recall whether I ever told anyone) that something was only a gift if you didn’t need it. If you gave me a vacuum cleaner to replace the one that broke as my birthday present,  you’re likely to have bought it anyway, so it wasn’t really a birthday present. Similarly, a husband buying a wife a “Christmas present” of a new iron with which to iron his shirts, well…

            I’ve gotten a little less rigid in my ideas about gifts in recent years – as I developed into a scavenger. But we can be somewhat the same way about gifts from God. We want to wake up one morning and be able to sing like Sandi Patty or Steve Green, or to be able to heal people, or prophesy. Coming to the point where we no longer feel tempted to gossip, or learning to say, “No thanks” to a  yummy treat don’t seem like a gifts.

            What I noticed as I read the passage this morning is that Paul didn’t leave Timothy’s gift a mystery. That’s the sense we get if we only read verse 6, but verse 7 (also often read separately) tells us that the gift both Paul and Timothy received  from God was the Spirit. This is one of those things that gets mentioned over and over in Scripture, and the people in Scripture and we just miss it. What God gives us that is so valuable is GOD.

            Now, the question of how we fan  into flames the gift…of God, and how that  should change our approach from fear to power – that needs some more thought. I’ll see what I can come up with for tomorrow.

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