God's Varied Grace

Devotion for the week...

Mostly when we talk about grace, we do so in terms of forgiveness, but the Bible also uses the word grace when talking about the gifts God has given us. It’s so easy to focus on the gifts other people have, while feeling like we don’t have any special gifts at all. The Bible is clear that isn’t the case, though. Peter wrote, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace" (1 Peter 4:10). 

 

We learn two things from this one verse. First, we all have some gift or talent. Notice that Peter wrote, 'as each has received a gift' and not 'those select few who have received a gift'. That’s because God didn’t leave any of us out, even if sometimes we feel otherwise. What are you good at? It may not be a thing that gets much attention, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. Sometimes we don’t recognize our gifts because they come to us so easily that we just think everyone can do what we do. That is definitely not true!

 

Second, we are to use the gifts we have to serve one another. They were never meant for us alone, but were given to us to serve a purpose in this world. Some of us will serve a few people in our immediate circle of influence. Some will serve hundreds, and some will serve even more. How many people we reach with our gift isn’t a reflection of the value of the gift (or the person!), but only of the purpose God had for it.

I love that Peter refers to it as us being good stewards of God’s grace. Stewards don’t own the thing they’re stewarding. They’re like the caretaker of it, doing the best they can with it for the one who does own it. In our case, we have God’s grace given to us in the form of a skill or talent we can use to benefit others. We are to do the best we can with our gift, in service to others, for the glory of the One who gave it to us.