Use What God Gave You
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)
God has not given every believer the same gift, and that is deliberate rather than unfortunate.
Peter writes, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
Four things in that sentence repay close attention.
First, “each of you.” Not the leaders, not the platform people, not the unusually spiritual. Every believer. The New Testament knows nothing of a Christian without a gift.
Second, “gift.” The Greek is charisma, which comes directly from charis, grace. A charisma is literally a grace-gift, something given freely rather than earned or achieved. That single etymological fact should quietly kill both pride and envy. You cannot boast about what was given, and you cannot resent someone else for receiving what you were never charged for.
Third, “to serve others.” The gift has a stated purpose, and it is not you. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says the same: each manifestation of the Spirit is given “for the common good.” Ephesians 4:12 says gifted people are given “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
Fourth, “stewards.” The Greek oikonomos is a household manager, someone entrusted with another person’s property. A steward does not own what he administers; he answers for it. That word carries both dignity and accountability.
And then the phrase at the end: “God’s grace in its various forms.” The Greek poikilos means many-coloured, variegated, multi-patterned. It is the word you might use of an intricately woven fabric. Peter’s picture is that God’s grace is too rich to be displayed through one kind of person, so He distributes it in many colours across a whole church.
That means uniformity would be a loss, not an improvement.
Paul develops this at length with the metaphor of a body in 1 Corinthians 12. The church is a body, not a collection of identical parts. Some lead, some teach, some encourage, some give, some serve, some show mercy (Romans 12:6-8). Some have gifts of healing, prophecy, tongues, interpretation, discernment, wisdom, knowledge, faith (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). The Holy Spirit distributes them “as he determines” (verse 11).
Note that last phrase, because it settles a lot. The distribution is His decision, not a reflection of your value. Paul answers the insecure foot that wishes it were a hand and the arrogant eye that despises the hand, and he corrects both with the same argument: God arranged the parts as He wanted them.
So the problem begins when we spend more time comparing gifts than using them. You can become so preoccupied with what somebody else carries that you neglect what God actually put in you. Envy is exhausting, and it produces nothing.
And notice the guard Peter builds in: your gift is not a trophy. It is a tool. It was given for the strengthening of other people, which means a gift used for self-promotion has been misused even when it is genuinely exercised. Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 13 stands over all of this: gifts without love profit nothing at all.
Whether your gift is public or private, visible or entirely unseen, it matters when it is surrendered to God. Some of the most significant work in any church is done by people whose names never appear anywhere.
Fanny Crosby lost her sight as a baby and lived without it for more than ninety years. She wrote thousands of hymns, among them “Blessed Assurance” and “To God Be the Glory,” many composed in her head and dictated to someone else. She never treated her blindness as a reason to hold back what God had given her.
So this morning, ask two practical questions.
What has God entrusted to me? If you do not know, that is worth pursuing rather than accepting. Ask people who know you well what they have seen. Notice what you find yourself doing when nobody assigns it. Notice what builds others up when you do it. Serve in several places and pay attention to where fruit appears.
And who can benefit from it today? Because a gift identified and unused is no more helpful than a gift undiscovered.
Maybe your encouragement can strengthen someone who is close to giving up. Maybe your generosity can meet a need that nobody else knows about. Maybe your leadership can bring clarity to a situation that is drifting. Maybe the Holy Spirit will prompt you to pray for somebody, to speak a word of encouragement, or to step into a practical need that you would ordinarily assume someone else will handle.
Let me name the most common obstacle, because Jesus named it too. In the parable of the talents, the servant who was condemned had not wasted his master’s money. He buried it, and his stated reason was fear (Matthew 25:25). Fear of getting it wrong, fear of looking foolish, fear of not measuring up. Burying is not neutral; the master calls it wicked and lazy.
Do not bury what God gave you because it looks small beside somebody else’s gift. Small in your estimation is not small in the economy of God, who fed a multitude with a boy’s lunch.
One more thing about discovering your gift, because many believers stall here for years.
Notice that the New Testament lists of gifts differ from one another. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4 do not match, and no list claims to be exhaustive. That strongly suggests these are illustrations of a generous God’s variety rather than a fixed inventory to place yourself in.
So do not treat this as a personality test you must complete before serving. Serve, and watch what happens. Notice what strengthens people when you do it. Ask two or three mature believers what they have observed in you.
Gifts are usually recognised in retrospect, by a community, rather than identified in advance in private.
Use what God has placed in you. Grace was given to you so that through your life, somebody else can be strengthened.
Reflection
1. What has God entrusted to you? If you are unsure, who could you ask this week, and where could you serve in order to find out?
2. Is there a gift you have buried out of fear or comparison? What would using it once, this week, actually look like?
Prayer
Father, thank You that every gift I have is grace, freely given and never earned. Forgive me for the time I have spent comparing rather than using, and for burying what You entrusted to me because it looked small beside someone else’s. Show me plainly what You have placed in my hands, and show me who can benefit from it today. Keep me from using Your gifts to build my own name. Make me a faithful steward of the many-coloured grace of God. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Declaration
My gift is grace given for others, not a trophy for me. I will not bury what God entrusted to me because it looks small.
Pastor Ras
All Nations Community Church
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