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Closing the Gap 10.10.18

By October 10, 2018Daily Devotional

Week 40 Day 3

Pray:

Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

1 Pet. 4:10-11 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Reflect:

To use (or administer) your gifts to serve others is to be a good steward of God’s grace in your life.  The words “various forms” mean multifaceted or multi-colored. Think of this in terms of God’s grace being a beautiful diamond that is held up to the light and as you turn the diamond the various colors of the light spectrum are reflected to the eyes revealing more fully its beauty.  The church (individual believers living life together) reflect the manifold glory of the Lord through the faithful expression of the gifts God has given. This fuller expression of his grace to us leads to a fuller experience of his grace in us. We become more like Christ over time as we serve others with the gifts he has given us.  “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). A life of serving others is the only possible way to experience and enjoy life as God has designed it. Whenever something is used in a way that defies its original design and purpose the result is frustration and eventually brokenness.  This is true of tools and machines as well as people. You were designed by a master designer for his purposes. Ultimately, his purpose is that you would bring him joy and glory by loving him and loving others. To this end he gives unique gifts and opportunities. When these gifts and opportunities are not used to their proper end, then frustration and emptiness will always result. Do you feel frequent frustration, emptiness or lack of purpose in your day to day life?  Then take a hard look at your actions, your attitudes, or both. Take a look at your actions, are you “using your life” to serve others or mostly to serve self? Take a look at your attitudes, perhaps you are serving but you are doing so grudgingly, not joyfully. Close the gap on actions and attitudes. See service as your privilege and your responsibility. See it as your purpose and your opportunity to live life as God has designed it to be lived.

Pray:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.

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