Stir Up Your Gift

Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you.
(2 Timothy 1:6 NKJV)

But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.
(1 Corinthians 7:7 NKJV)

I am not creative. I cannot draw, I cannot paint, and I definitely cannot sing (well, not in tune anyway). This is not false modesty. The creative genes in my family bypassed me. I’m not quite sure where they went, but they did not come down to me.

I am still scarred by my mother congratulating me on the beautiful cow I drew for her when I was a child. It was a horse. And the bunny I drew looked like an amoeba with ears. My friend, Jennifer, and I were asked very politely by our teacher if we could just mime when the class sang.

However, I did a great drawing on my whiteboard of Oswald, the ostrich. My-co-workers were deeply impressed by my talent. A friend cottoned on right away and asked when had I taken to art forgery?

So, I have gone through life believing I do not have a gift. But Paul says we all do. “Stir up the gift of God which is in you.” Therefore, it followed I had to have a gift of some sort. I just needed to find it.

When we think gifts, we immediately think gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) – wisdom, prophecy, knowledge, and so on. But there are others. What of compassion? Kindness? The willingness to listen and just be there for the hurting? Patience? Encouragement? Barnabas, who accompanied Paul on Paul’s missionary journeys was known as the “son of encouragement.” After Paul’s conversion, it was Barnabas who stood up for Paul and assured the Jerusalem church that Paul was truly converted. Understandably, they were suspicious of Paul whose reputation as a persecutor of the church was well known.

And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus (Acts 4:36 NKJV).

You are unique. God made only one of you, and He had the plan for your life in place long before you were born.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV). Therefore, it follows He has placed the gift(s) in you that will be needed to fulfil that plan.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14 NKJV).

If you have any doubt that you are not “fearfully and wonderfully” made, just stop and ponder your DNA. Starting with just four characters, your three billion-character DNA is formed. If you took the DNA out of one cell and stretched it out, it would be six feet long. To read your DNA, reading one character per second, night and day, would take ninety-six years.

All gifts are equally powerful, but all are different. As you get to know Christ deeper and deeper, your gift will become apparent.

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Peter 4:10 NKJV).

I have since been told my gift is encouragement, which has been confirmed by others. One of these people even looked at me and said, “Duh, you didn’t realize that?” I am thrilled with my gift. I am in great company with Barnabas, “the son of encouragement.”

Seek and embrace your gifts too.