I've been slightly bombarded by the topic of spiritual gifts lately. A couple weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to know the gifts that God had blessed my small group girls with, so I asked them all to take one of those online spiritual gifts tests. I understand that online test aren't a mirror image of God's blessing, but I'm a sucker for quick results. No surprise to me, my top three spiritual gifts were giving, encouragement, and faith. This may sounds a little too obvious, but if you have a gift, you're suppose to give it. The whole meaning of a gift is something that you grant to someone else. Gifts aren't like money, you can't just hoard it and hope that it never changes. If you don't give your gift, it no longer is a gift.
Naturally, I believe that if God called them gifts, its not just because He ran out of words to use and did the 'find a synonym' trick that Microsoft Word kindly incorporated to help vocabulary challenged individuals like myself. So now my challenge is discovering exactly how I plan to give these gifts away. My mindset going into this is that these gifts are unlimited. I've always heard that you can't out-give God, so I have a feeling that this supply that I've tapped into is unending. And if it's not, then I plan on finding that out first hand.
I've also been thinking that it's not really the 'who' do I give to, but the 'how' do I give. I've never met someone who doesn't want a gift (except the homeless man I tried to buy food for and he ran away from me as I chased him with a cheeseburger). My techniques may be a little off base, but my intentions are good. Just brainstorming here, but I have a couple ideas that I may try. For giving, I increased my tithe to the church, I want to give more gifts for no reason, and be more intentional about remembering occasions than warrant gifts. For faith, I'm still discovering how to give that one, but being more bold and intentional in my conversations regarding the amazing works of God will be my start. Finally, for encouragement, I've thought about writing little notes, avoiding negative conversations, and not running away from people that cry simple because tears make me extremely awkward and uncomfortable. Yes, I am a work in progress, but I do still have gifts that must be given away before they no longer keep their form and turn into nothing useful at all.
