PRAY: repeat prayer from day 1
READ: 1 Corinthians 12:1–11
MEDITATE:
Think of a glorious symphony. There is great variety in the instruments played and the skills required of the players, but all those instruments and all those different musicians create a musical unity as they give a concert.
Often in the church we have a tendency to seek unity in conformity. Rather than encouraging each person’s uniqueness we often discourage it. In many churches this quest for uniformity is not limited to loyalty to the rector and staff and participation in regular worship. There is an effort to get all the members to think alike on all issues. While there is a certain short-term efficiency in an authoritarian approach to leadership, in the long run it is self-defeating because it does not recognize the giftedness of each member of the church. The kind of unity God seeks comes from the exercising of those gifts.
Perhaps some of the “gifts of the Spirit” don’t surface until a need appears and we come to God in desperation and we pray about what to do. That’s where we are right now, brothers and sisters! As we embrace this time of discernment, we will discover that God in his love and wisdom has placed the necessary gifts within the church for dealing with both our problems and our opportunities! I am convinced that the church is merely touching the hem of the garment of God, mainly because there are still so many gifts undiscovered and so many gifted Christians whose gifts are not being used.
Questions and Application:
- What does this passage say?
- What does this passage mean?
- What is your SHAPE (Spiritual Gifts, Heartbeat passion, Abilities, Personality, Experience)?
PRAY: Almighty and everlasting God, who in the paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation, grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.