After watching the Grammy’s a couple weeks ago, I came to a fresher revelation of the verse Romans 11:29. I’ve always quoted this verse and understood it but it just hit me in a different way and I love the way the Amplified version puts it. Check it out…
Romans 11:29 AMP
For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]
God is so in love with us that He gives us gifts, callings, talents and opportunities without us even having to acknowledge Him. We don’t even have to thank the Giver of those gifts to get to use them. He just creates us that way. Of course, it’s up to us to honor God with those gifts and hone those talents to become better at them but it blows my mind that they are freely given in the first place. We all have gifts and talents. Every. Single. One.
I guess while watching the Grammy’s I had a sense of sadness because I am watching all this amazing talent and all the while it’s being used in a temporal, self-gratifying way. Of course, I aways go introspective when I find myself thinking that way, hoping to not be judgmental of others although I am a walking plank-eye (Matt. 7:5). So it made me wonder, “Do I glory in the gifting on my life or do I give God the glory for the gifting on my life?” First of all, I know it sounds kinda arrogant to say you are gifted, but it’s really not if you approach it in the right way. Humility is knowing who you are before a holy God. Without God I can nothing that really amounts to anything (John 15:5). But with God I can do all things (Phil. 4:13). So to recognize and acknowledge the God-given gift is a good thing. To thank the gift Giver and use it for Him is a great thing! But to think, for even one second, that we are the owner of the gift is when we get into pride and arrogance and that is a very bad thing.
We have to understand that we are stewards of the gift of God on our lives and we will be held accountable one day for how we used the gift God entrusted to us. Are we using God’s gift for selfishness or selflessness? Are we using the gift to further our kingdom or God’s? The next time we have an opportunity, let’s really allow God to test our motive for the use of His gift on our life.
