Expecting Great Things

I read this and thought it was worth passing on for us all to consider...
"'As each one has received a special gift...." When God in his grace sends His Holy Spirit to reside in a new believer, the Holy Spirit gives them their permanent spiritual gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-11). These spiritual gifts are exactly that: gifts. No one can work for them, desire them, or deserve them. They are gifts given because of the grace of God; and once given, they are to be opened, investigated, and developed.
Spiritual gifts are not natural talents. All of mankind in every generation since the beginning of our existence has been given natural talents in art, music, building, math, sports, etc., in order to bring grace and beauty to the world in which we all live. Natural talents enrich the soul of mankind. Spiritual gifts enrich the spirit of fellow believers, and bring blessings or conviction of sin to unbelievers, with the hope that they will repent of their rejection of Jesus Christ as their Lord and turn to him as their Savior.
When this spiritual truth becomes our current reality, we will see not only the importance of discovering our spiritual gifts, but the importance of wrapping our lives around them so that we can put them to their proper use within the church for the glory of God and the benefit of others. We will also discover that within the body of Christ, every member has a significant role for the benefit of the whole body."

Have you discovered your spiritual gifts? Not just what you 'like' to do, but the gifts God has supernaturally blessed you with?

How are you honoring God with those gifts? Are you growing in them? Are you stretching yourself in new ways, developing those gifts to their fullest potential? Or are you just giving God what you can do naturally without any effort and expecting Him to be flattered? Ouch.

So...how will you up your game today? What are you going to do or experience to be inspired to greater levels of intimacy with Christ and more thoughtful, targeted development of your God given gifts so that He might be more fully recognized through them?. Make a decision, a commitment towards 'wrapping your life' in the reality of who God made you to be and take a bold next step. Because when we do friends, it's then that we can expect great things.