Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more