Helping Others

Helping Others

The Bible reveals that God gives abilities and talents to each one of us. These abilities and talents are often called gifts. The gifts God gives us can include talents for music, communication, encouragement, organization, mercy, giving, teaching, helping, and many more. God gives us these gifts to help others. Your gifts have a specific purpose and are unique to you. God wants you to use your gifts to show your love for Him and for others. You can experience great joy along with a sense of fulfillment when you know how God has gifted you and you use those gifts to help others.

Do you know what your gifts are? More often than not, your gifts are tied directly to the things that help make you feel alive and happy about what you are doing. For example, do you absolutely love hosting people in your home or organizing the office parties at work? If so, you may have the gift of hospitality. Are you a single person and are able to control the natural human needs for physical and emotional intimacy with a member of the opposite sex? If so, you may have the God-given gift of celibacy like the apostle Paul had. What about making things? Do you love making craft items or building things? If so, you may have the gift of craftsmanship. Whatever your gifts, find out what they are and use them to help others and to bring glory and honor to God. In the process, you will find that you, too, are blessed because God will give you a sense of peace and fulfillment that you cannot get anywhere else.

If you have never taken a spiritual gifts assessment, I encourage you to take one to find out what your spiritual gifts might be. Once you know what they are, you can ask God to show you opportunities in which you can use them. If you have taken a spiritual gifts assessment before but it has been a long time since, I encourage you to take one again. Why? Because being reminded of what our gifts our can be self-encouraging. The reminder helps us to engage a greater focus on helping others in areas that we are gifted in.

There are many spiritual gift assessments that you can complete. Try this one for starters at http://www.kodachrome.org/spiritgift. It is written simply and clearly and provides an easy-to-understand description of the various gifts identified in the assessment.