Are you using your Gift?

[Reginald Lee]

God has a specific design for your life, and that is that you be holy.  God offer up his Son to bear the sins of the world so that we, by his sacrifice, might be made holy unto God. Since God has offer up his Son, we ought to offer back our lives in holiness, Rom.12:1. The world is against everything that is holy. For this is why the writer has said, "Be not conformed to this world," because the world is fighting and all out war against everything that is holy. The power of God's word is the weapon in overcoming the world to be all that God has made us to be. "Be ye holy, for I am Holy." This is the will of God.
If we offer our lives unto God in holiness, he will fill us with his gifts of ministry. Each of us has been endowed by God with the ability to contribute our gifts and talents in building the kingdom of God. Let us not be guilty of hiding our gifts. We should never dodge an opportunity to serve. Instead of dodging, we should recognize the need has as opportunity for God to show forth his love and power.
In the parable of the talents, the Lord gave one five, another two, and gave another one, Matt. 25:15. The Lord required one thing of all his servants, that they use what he had given them. No doubt the servant who had one talent took it out and buried it because he was looking at the fact that someone else had more than he. He probably thought within himself. "What can I do with so little?" Instead of trusting God to do a great thing with his talent, his fear would rob him of every opportunity to work in the service of the Lord, V.25. His fear would rob him of life's most precious gift, the joy of the Lord.
Each of us must seek to please God by whatever means he gives us. Every believer is valuable to the church and it's ministry to people. 1 Cor. 12:7 says, "The manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal." Every man has been saved to be used by God in building the kingdom. No matter what your call may be, it is the spirit that unites us in the ministry of the church. We must always remember we are all working for the same Lord, and it is he who works all in all.
We must commit the past the present and future into the hands of God to do with it as he pleases. If we do so God will use our gifts and fill us with his power. We must trust God to do what we cannot do for ourselves. As we wait upon the Lord let us be committed to the work of righteousness. Waiting upon God does not mean that we are standing idle.  Whatever our hands find to do we do it as unto the Lord. The believer is able to commit everything to God. For God is in control, it is in his power to give to one and take from another whatever he pleases.