"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms" - 1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

Once a certain person was passed a basket while in church to make a donation. He did not take this entreaty kindly. "Why should the church insist on my giving when I don't have the gift of giving!"

Ephesians 4:11-13 points out, 'And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.' For some this has meant that they shouldn't be bothered with matters that are not in their set of gifting. Let pastors be pastors and teachers be teachers!

Now if such were the case it would mean that someone who was not gifted with the gift of singing should never venture a song at all! Likewise if one was not gifted with being an evangelist, one should never venture out to preach the Gospel. This attitude believes in the compartmentalization of life with each of one of us sticking in their grove.

That there are those who have been gifted in certain areas, there is no doubt, but that was not meant that others whose gifting is in another fold should never venture where their “speciality" is not. When one has a particular set of gifting he would naturally excel there but it is not to mean others are not welcome in his territory. For example, while some believers are better at winning souls, as evangelists, it is the duty for every believer to go out and share the Gospel (Mark 16:15)! One would be wrong to claim that he can’t share the gospel by insisting "after all I am not an evangelist!"

While we should all use our special gifts to build the church we do well to engage in other callings too where our purpose remains the same- build His church! "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all" (1 Corinthian 12:4).

Prayer for today: Lord Father God in heaven, may the gifts you have blessed us with be used to build the church without feeling conflicted even in those areas where we might not be as good provided we are building the church!