Christmas is only a month and a half away. While the most important aspect of that holiday ought to be celebrating the birth of Jesus, gifts have become an important part of the celebration as well. You will be giving gifts to people who are special to you just as the Wisemen gave gifts to the baby Jesus. And, you will be receiving gifts from those that are close to you.

Every single one of you that claim Christ as his Savior has been given a special gift from God in addition to salvation.

1 Corinthians 12:7 - 11 (NLT) ⁷A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. ⁸To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice (word of wisdom); to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge (word of knowledge). ⁹The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. ¹⁰He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages (various tongues), while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. ¹¹It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

Notice that not all people have the same gift. Not all have special wisdom or knowledge and not all speak in tongues. We don’t decide what gift we get. The Holy Spirit does.

We are given these gifts, not so that we can boast about what he gave us; not so that we can “wow” people with what we’re able to do. We are given these gifts SO WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER (v. 7).

God is a God of love and wants us to be like him. Only when we’re thinking of other people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and those that don’t know Jesus, are we following in His ways.

If you don’t know what your special gift is, ask God to show you. Expect Him to answer and earnestly desire to use your gift(s) to further the Kingdom of God.

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM…