Ephesians 4:7-13 (NIV) But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” …. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.
As we think of gift giving and receiving, I want to ask you to engage in a little gift assessment inventory by asking a question. Who are the people that are gifts from God to you? Now I know that every human being has value, but you will miss the human gifts from God if you don’t discern that some people are truly a blessing while others are not. The Good Book speaks of some as being “stumbling blocks” and others as being “predators.” I fear that the over use and the misuse of “you mustn’t judge,” is undermining our ability to assign the right level of influence to the right people. If the local art museum places someone’s random doodling up beside a Rembrandt, it would be considered irrational.
This morning, in my private devotions, I was reflecting on 1 Thessalonians 2, where the Apostle Paul begins by telling his audience, “we ought always to give thanks to God for you.” He proceeds to make it clear that this wasn’t just some generic thanksgiving for all humans because of their intrinsic value. In the passages that followed, he affirmed that they had believed the truth and furthermore the Thessalonians had carried out the things they had “commanded.”
My mind then jumped over to the reference in Ephesians 4:8, where it refers to God giving humans gifts and then making it clear in verse 11 that those gifts were people who are planted in our lives to encourage us and to serve us according to His will. On December 25th, I plan to unwrap my gifts, say thanks for my gifts and spend time with my gifts. We should do the same with our human gifts.
By the way, Ephesians 4 refers to leaders as gifts and 1 Thessalonians 3 refers to followers as gifts. Being a human gift has nothing to do with position or prominence but with strategic placement and quality. Human gifts have deep respect, engage in consistent communication and make passionate investments in those they are a gift to, as well as those who are a gift to them. Those three disciplines can be easily missed by us if we don’t properly discern who in our life deserves the highest honor. We should love equally but honor discriminately.
So let’s pause and give thanks for the people that are quality gifts to us and make a determination to invest at a whole other level into those to whom God is giving us to as a gift. I am purposing to get better at honoring those who are a gift to me and investing in those that I am a gift to.
