Today’s Devotional: Laying Aside Our Gifts
Has God ever called you to temporarily set aside one of your gifts?
We each have things we’re good at—talents, interests, or skills that we value and consider integral to our lives. As Christians, we understand these talents to be gifts from God. However, there is a danger in wrapping too much of our identity around a particular talent or skill. When we and others focus too much on an individual talent, we risk valuing the gift over the person employing it.
In this devotional, Blaine Smith of Nehemiah Notes addresses the challenge of valuing a gift without valuing it too highly, at the expense of other things. Sometimes, an appropriate response is to lay aside a gifts for a time:
As a Christian, you face a dilemma: While using your gift will help others, it will also draw attention to yourself. Will this attention be spiritually unhealthy for you? Will it cause you to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think? And will it cause others to honor you above Christ? Is it best just to refrain from using your gift altogether–to avoid any ego problems, and so that Christ will be glorified in your weakness and not in your strength?
These are not always easy questions. It’s clear that God sometimes does call a Christian to avoid using a gift for a time. Yet I believe it’s more typically because one is insecure than conceited. Someone who thinks poorly of him- or herself in general may be basing self-worth too strongly on a particular talent. He may benefit from putting his gift aside for a while, particularly if he is in a fellowship where people genuinely care about him. Finding that others love her and appreciate her, whether or not she is using her gift, will be a big boost to her morale and confidence in Christ.
The tendency to stake one’s identity too strongly on a gift can be especially strong for a new believer who has brought either poor self-esteem or an inflated self-image into the Christian life. Thus, Paul declares, “Never be in a hurry to ordain a man” (I Tim 5:22)–cautioning against putting a new Christian in a leadership position who hasn’t developed the maturity in Christ to handle the honor involved.
The rest of the essay describes how to discern when it’s appropriate to give up our gifts. Read the full devotional at Nehemiah Notes.
Have you ever felt that one of your gifts was drawing an unhealthy amount of attention, either from yourself or from others? Has God ever called you to give up a gifts for a time?
