Do You Not See How Love and Grace Connect in Our Lives to Bring Us Joy?
Good Morning Friends,
God gives each of special abilities and expects us to be faithful in using what we have been given. We are to invest our gifts in kingdom service. There’s no getting around the fact that we are responsible for what we have been given. The beauty is that when the puzzle pieces are connected great things happen. Do You Not See How Love and Grace Connect in Our Lives to Bring Us Joy?
Scripture: 3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. 11Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.*
12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Romans 12: 3-13 (NRSV)
Message: Building on yesterday’s message on the love languages, and today’s sermon scripture at Moorings, my experience is that when we make a commitment to encourage others, contribute to the cause of Christ, lead with a commitment to demonstrate mercy, we connect in the way God intended us to love.
Here we see our spiritual gift as a fruitful form of love. I sensed a little of this as I watched a draft version of a short video on One by One Leadership Foundation that uses the connection of puzzle pieces in a graphic as a way of conveying our mission. The video reconfirms my conviction that real success is being in the will of God connected to a Kingdom outcome. Possessions do not have much to do about it, but passion and people…. connecting influential relationships, ideas and the power of love does. The source of this strategy is connected with scripture, with other believers and with Christ as one body. That is how love works. So these virtues of mercy and service and contributing and exhorting, are ordinary Christian virtues that we should all have. But they become spiritual gifts when we find the virtues pouring out with unusual joy and with unusual fruitfulness for others as the Body of Christ is connected.
Pray we put God before gold. Pray we put people above pleasures. Pray we have a God directed passion. Pray we invest in people. Pray that we realize that all we have and all we are is simply a gift from God. Pray we say thank you. Pray we see what truly matters. Pray we realize that we
are only a small part
of God’s bigger plan. Pray we realize that small things can matter a lot. Pray for our Lord’s name sake and for the good of the church and for the joy of all peoples that gifts abound. Pray God raise up people who joyfully and fruitfully serve. Pray that anyone who learns anything about God would seek the gift to teach it to others. Pray we skillfully influence others in a ministry of love that shows forth a kindly authority not earthly power and compulsion. Pray we lead with zeal. Pray we delight in cheerful giving. Pray we show mercy and hospitality. Pray that the gifts of service, teaching, exhorting, contributing and doing acts of mercy are connected to our purpose for God’s glory. Pray we delight in learning to love better. Pray we see how love and grace connect in our lives to bring us joy. Pray we see the need and fill it.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 