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Scripture Reading: Romans 12

What are some things that you feel passionate about―things that you like to do that bring joy to you and to those around you?  Chances are, God has gifted you in a special way to do those very things.  And when you do them, you bring joy to His heart as well.

A man named Eric Liddle loved God.  He also loved to run.  He wanted to spend his life as a missionary, but he also had a chance to run in the Olympic games.  Torn between running or being a missionary, he eventually did both.  As he told one of his friends:  “When God created me, He made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

God has created and gifted each one of us uniquely.  To some He has given the gift of teaching, to others, serving, to still others, the gifts of leading or healing or giving or showing mercy.  God wants you to use your gifts to the fullest.  In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul talks about how you can do just that:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. … Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Romans 12:1, 6-8). 

The word sacrifice in this context comes from the Greek word “thusia,” which means “to make an offering.”  A living sacrifice, then, is someone who “makes an offering” of their life to God.  It’s also the basis for our English word “enthusiasm,” which means “infused with the Divine Spirit”―a passionate drive that has been given to us by God.

In the movie, Amazing Grace, you can see what this kind of passionate drive from God looks like in action.  The movie tells the true story of William Wilberforce, a British man who “found God” while he was serving as a member of parliament.  Wilberforce considered giving up his position in politics to go into pastoral ministry.  But he also had a passion to abolish the slave trade in England, a passion which few people shared at the time, for slavery was firmly entrenched in the economy and culture of many English outposts.

Upon hearing that Wilberforce was facing such a dilemma, his good friend and soon-to-be prime minister of England, William Pitt, arranged a meeting between Wilberforce and some of the other passionate abolitionists.  One of them, a pastor, said, “Mr. Wilberforce, we understand you’re having problems choosing whether to do the work of God or the work of a political activist.” Another added, quietly, “We humbly suggest that you can do both.”

Rather than leave politics, Wilberforce spent the next thirty years as a member of parliament, using his God-given gifts of eloquence, wisdom, and faith to help bring about the end of slavery throughout the entire British Empire.

What about you?  What kinds of gifts might God want you to use for Him?  By thinking about those things which you feel most passionate about, it can help you identify what gifts God may most want to use within you.

Someone recently asked me, “If you could be the best in the world at one particular skill, what would it be, and why?”  The first thing that came to my mind was “preaching,”  because I like the idea of being able interact and shape the lives of people God has brought into my life.  But the second thing that came to my mind was “writing,” because as much as I love personally interacting with people, I know that by writing down the thoughts and ideas that God is putting into my mind, I can influence people’s lives for generations to come.  Thinking about these two passions in my life has helped me to focus on those things that God has gifted me to do as well.

A Jesuit priest named John Powell talks of an old Christian tradition that says, “God sends every person into the world with a special message to deliver, with a special song to sing for others, and a special act of love to bestow.  No one else can speak your message, or sing your song, or offer your act of love. These are entrusted only to you.”

When you think about your own gifts, your own passions, your own special skills that you could use to “make an offering” to God, what comes to mind?  What do you feel passionate about?  How has God gifted or empowered you?  How has He infused His Divine Spirit within you in a particular way?

If you’re not sure what your spiritual gifts might be, read through some of the gifts God has poured out on his people as recorded in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 and try to identify some of those which you feel most passionate about.

If you put even one or two of these gifts into use in your own life this week, I think you’ll find out even more what it means to be “a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.”

Prayer

Father, thank You for giving us spiritual gifts, gifts that we can use to bless You and bless those around us.  We pray that You would help us to understand our gifts even better, so that we can live our lives in such a way that we are truly “living sacrifices,” holy and pleasing to You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Memory Verse

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1, ESV).