GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. … Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory. (1 Peter 4:10-11 NLT)

Generosity flows from the heart of God: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17 NIV)

When God gives, he holds nothing back. He gives every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 1:3 NLT) There’s no obligation for him to give us so much.

He gives because he loves.

He gives not only to bless you, but also so he can bless others through you. God designed you with a unique set of talents, gifts, skills, and abilities.

He gives to you so you can give to others. Receive from God, then give to others. “… Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it.” (1 Peter 4:10 MSG)

What does this mean?

• Be generous with different things – Here’s what I think Peter means: The other day I was at the YMCA, thinking I needed help pushing myself in order to lose more weight. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if a Christian brother, committed to physical fitness, would take me on as a ministry? In fact, he could start a ‘small group’ that met at the gym.”
• Talents, skills, abilities – The point is that we all have talents, skills, and abilities given to us by God, and we can give those away. In many congregations, we see this with musicians who give their talents to help us worship God. Some may be professional musicians but others are volunteers freely give away their musical talents to bless others.
• Give creatively – The thing is, think creatively about the talents, skills, and abilities God has given you. If you’re a mechanic, you could help single women in your church keep their cars in good condition. If you’re a handy man (or woman), you can do simple repairs for some of the families in your neighborhood. If you are known for your hospitality, you can teach a younger generation how to open their homes to others. Years ago, a lawyer at my church prepared wills for all the young families, doing it in a group setting so it didn’t overwhelm his practice. Think creatively! A great and true friend of mine once flew halfway across the United States to help me drive a moving truck all the way back.
• What can you give? – Ask God what you can do to bless others. Ask him how you can do it. Ask him to show you who to bless with the gifts, skills, talents he has given you. By giving in this way, we imitate our Lord and prove to be his disciples. (Matthew 25:31-40)

Jon Walker is the teaching pastor for “The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals,” and resident writer at www.GraceCreates.com. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him. (Genesis 21:2 HCSB)

Sarah and Abraham grew weary of the wait, and so they decided to step in and help God fulfill the promise he’d made. Sarah and Abraham thought, just like you and me, “God doesn’t understand our circumstances; his commandments are good guidelines, but they simply don’t work well in the nitty gritty of life.”

And so Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

Yet the promise had been that Sarah would be the one to deliver a son for Abraham, and the wait continued, long after reaching the point of desperate frustration – the place where you say, “God, I can’t go on any longer!” God still hasn’t answered your desperate pleas. You pray persistently, like the widow knocking on the judge’s door day and night (Luke 18), but the shutters stay closed and the door remains shut.

Sarah and Abraham knocked on that door for another 14 years! (Genesis 16:16; Genesis 21:5) Only then did God open Sarah’s womb so she could bear Abraham a son in his old age, at the time appointed by God. (Genesis 21:2 HCSB)

During those 14 years, God made a covenant with Abram, changing his name to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude.” (Genesis 17) Yet Abraham and Sarah still waited.

It was more than a decade before three mysterious visitors arrived, telling Abraham that Sarah would provide him a son within the year. Sarah laughed, not believing God was about to give birth to his promise. (Genesis 18)

Still waiting, Abraham negotiated with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and, most likely, soon received the news that the daughters of his nephew Lot were pregnant. Having faltered in their faith, no longer believing God would provide them with husbands, the sisters slept with their father while he was too drunk to realize what was happening. (Genesis 19) Is it possible that Abraham’s heart sank as he realized these young girls also had decided to step in and help God fulfill a promise?

Yet, even with this fresh reminder that there is folly in taking over for God, Abraham was soon lying, not trusting God for his protection, telling the king of Gerar that Sarah was his sister and not his wife, in fear he would be killed so Abimelech could take Sarah as his own wife. Yet the king took Sarah anyway. (Genesis 20)

This time God intervened, and why? Perhaps God was teaching Abraham that God would solve the problem, that a lie from Abraham was not the solution. And perhaps because God was about to fulfill the promise of Sarah bringing forth a son from the seed of Abraham, and if she’d slept with the king, there would have been questions about who was really Isaac’s father.

Finally – after 14 years – the Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant. And this time Sarah laughed with joy, saying, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” (Genesis 21:6)

She then added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?” (Genesis 21:7) God told her, and God fulfilled his promise.

What does this mean?

• God is on the other side of your wait – God is as faithful with his promises as the sun is faithful to rise every morning. Although we often wonder, during the wait, if God is going make good on his promise, the question we should be asking is why we doubt God will do what he said he would do. This question is not meant to trigger condemnation, rather to encourage growth. God wants you to grow in your faith, and he’ll help you grow – in part, by asking you to wait for the appointed time.
• Nothing to do but wait – Let me be candid and tell you that over the past few months, I’ve been waiting on God to fulfill a promise. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I am desperately waiting over a desperate need. Perhaps you can empathize, and perhaps you understand when I say that, at times, I’ve been angry, frustrated, depressed. I’ve demanded God provide for the need on my own timetable. Several times I’ve even tried to push the door open in my own strength. Then, a few weeks ago, I realized that there was absolutely nothing I could do to make this thing happen. I was totally and wholly dependent upon God to fulfill his promise. Not dependent because I obediently submitted everything to God, but totally dependent because I’d exhausted every other possibility. (Ha! Perhaps you can relate!)
• Then, I had what I call a “Meshach moment” – A moment where I had to say, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18, HCSB; emphasis mine) Could God be steering you toward a “Meshach moment,” bringing you to a place where you are wholly dependent upon God and faithful even if the answer does not come?

Jon Walker is the teaching pastor for “The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals,” and resident writer at www.GraceCreates.com. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.