God’s Gifts are Not For You

By Marcia Lee Laycock

“Did you have a good Christmas? What did you get?”

Those two sentences seem to go hand in hand. I used to hear them a lot in times past, as people chatted with my kids. The girls always gave the same answer, naming a couple of their favorite gifts. As I listened to the exchange, I chuckled to myself. There were a couple of presents given one year that were not really intended for the recipient. One of the girls gave “the family” a large perfumed candle. “To go in the bathroom,” she said, grinning. The rest of us grinned back - we all knew who spent hours in the tub.

You’ve probably been given one or two gifts of that sort at some point, if not at Christmas, perhaps for your birthday. Many wives have received such “useful” presents - a set of pots and pans; a blender; an iron. I remember one my husband gave me many years ago. We were building a house at the time so I suppose it was a practical gift, but a shiny new Spalding saw was not what I had envisioned for my birthday! He grinned a lot when he gave it to me, like my daughter did when we unwrapped that candle. I knew who was going to do the sawing.

Like that candle and that saw, God’s gifts are not just intended for the recipient. He intends to use them Himself. It is up to us to put hands and feet to those intentions by serving others. The prophet Isaiah new this when he said - “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.” (Isaiah 50:4) The writer of 1 Corinthians also knew the principle well. He stresses that the gifts God gives are intended, not for the benefit or honor of those employing them, but for the “strengthening of the church.”(1Cor.14:26) The apostle Peter makes this clear when he says – “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10)

God’s gifts are intended for others, but we also benefit when we use what we have been given, both spiritual gifts and natural talents, to that end. There is no greater sense of fulfillment and satisfaction than that which comes when we have used what we have been given to strengthen others. Whether it is in providing a meal on Christmas day for those in need, teaching Mathematics in grade 2, providing efficient secretarial skills in an office, digging a ditch for a sewer line or a post hole for a fence to keep the cows in, preaching a sermon on Sunday morning or writing a novel that touches the hearts of its readers; if you are using the gifts God gave you, you will be blessed.

So. Did you have a good Christmas? What did you get?

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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone and also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. Marcia's second novel, A Tumbled Stone was recently short listed in the contemporary fiction category of The Word Awards. 

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded here. Visit Marcia’s website

 

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Because He First Loved by Marcia Lee Laycock

Marcia Lee Laycock won The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. Visit her website - www.vinemarc.com

There was once a young woman who looked for love. She didn’t know that’s what she was doing, but she did it with ferocious need. She left her home in search of it, attached herself to many people thinking they would give it to her.

She moved from place to place, thinking some day she would find it; she took on various jobs and followed a few careers. She delved into all kinds of creative endeavours. But she was never satisfied. Love was elusive. She began to believe it didn’t really exist.

Then someone challenged her to look in the one place she had avoided. She was convinced she would not find it there, believed she had already looked but been barred from it. Deep in her soul she knew that place was where love lived, but she believed she was not worthy of finding it, so she avoided going to that source.

But eventually she came to the end of her desperate running. Every other source had proven empty and false. There was nowhere else to go, so she turned her face to that source and gave in. “Okay,” she said, “show me that it’s real. Prove to me that love exists for me.”

Then she admitted she had done a lot of things wrong in her lifetime of searching and she asked forgiveness. She didn’t know that was the key that unlocked the barrier.
Nothing happened right away. The clouds didn’t part, lightening didn’t flash, but some time later a miracle occurred. She birthed a child.

What grew in her as she cared for that child was a love she could never have dreamed of. It swelled inside her and overflowed. She recognized the miracle and was thankful. She recognized that someone did indeed love her. He loved her enough to intervene in her life and cause a miracle. She was loved and nothing else mattered. She had found the true Source.

She had learned what the word love truly means. It doesn’t mean receiving at all. It means giving.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. … We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:16-19).

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Giving is Powerful by Marcia Lee Laycock

I read a blog a while ago that illustrates that truth extremely well. It’s a story about a man who had a story to tell and needed an illustrator. He contacted a well known artist and told him his idea. The man did a few drawings to show what the characters could look like. The writer was astonished and asked how he could be so generous with his time and talent. The man’s response was telling. He listed a number of ‘giving opportunities’ that had come his way – times when he used his talent to help others with no thought of remuneration or compensation. In each instance it had led to other opportunities that helped grow his career and his life experience. It was obvious in the tone of that response that it was the man himself who had been blessed.

We all have to eat, pay bills, “make a living.” But we all have to give to others – give of our time and talents and person. I learned this lesson many years ago but sometimes I forget. Sometimes I grumble when the fee paid for a speaking engagement doesn’t even cover the cost of gas or when I wonder if I will ever see a royalty check from my novel. Sometimes I groan when a novel I think is poorly written hits the #1 spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

But then I give something away – some time, some money, some thing, even some writing – and it does something to me. Suddenly I feel a little lighter. That book on the NYT bestseller’s list doesn’t bother me so much. I smile more.

There’s something about giving that strengthens us, gives us that extra measure of grace we might need in a tense moment, provides the compassion needed to show someone that there is love in the world. It’s in giving that we are tied to one another. It’s in giving that we learn what being human really means. And it is often in giving that we learn the value of the gifts we have been given.

There’s a popular commercial on TV these days that shows various circumstances and then quotes the cost. Cost of taxi to the airport, $50.00; cost of flight to Italy, $1500.00 ; cost of camera to record the event, $450.00; cost of the look on your best friend’s face, priceless. That’s a wise commercial. It plays on the idea that we all know the best things in life, the most important things, cannot be measured by money. They’re measured by what we give without reservation, just to benefit someone else.

Jesus knew this better than anyone. He spoke of it to tax collectors and thieves, men who were motivated by greed. He explained it to men more concerned about ‘making it’ on earth than expanding God’s kingdom. He changed their hearts and when they obeyed, they reaped the blessings. Look at Peter, for instance. He was one whose main concern was fishing to make enough to live. Until Jesus said, “follow me.” Then he became a man who healed a lame man with the words, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you” (Acts 3:6).

What I have I give you. All of us have time, talents, gifts that we can share with the world. May we all remember the Lord’s words – “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35b).

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