I’m sure you’ve all heard it before; “God gives people different gifts, you have a gift, use your gift!” But what if you don’t know what your gift is?
It can be so frustrating when you desperately want to know what gift you have so that you can start using it to the max. Especially if you’re around other people whose gifting seems so clear.
The church is often very good at celebrating the gifts of those on the stage like musicians and speakers, so then it leaves you thinking they are really the only gifts you can have and if you can’t sing or you have never been good at public speaking then you must not have a gift at all! But that is TOTALLY not the case! If our God is the God that made almost 1000 varieties of Banana, he would have definitely made more than two kinds of gifting.
The bible talks a lot about spiritual gifts, however in this post we are going to be discussing discovering the type of gifts that God gives us to use to serve Him and each other.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” – 1 Peter 4:10
Here are a few pointers to discovering what your gifting is:
- Something you are passionate about.
- It comes naturally to you
- If you weren’t paid to do it, you would do it anyway
- What frustrates you? (i.e You’re at a church event and the flyer was really naff, you know it could have been so much better… maybe your gifting is design!)
I never knew what my gift was. I used to spend ages thinking about it and asking God to make it clear to me. There were times when I thought perhaps I needed to create my own gift. Maybe I could take singing lessons and then get on the worship team and then that would mean my gift was singing!? But that didn’t really work out for me…
My graduation from university in 2014
I have always loved writing and used to write little stories as a child, and when I got to school, English was one of my strongest subjects. I went on to study journalism at university… writing came naturally to me. However this whole time I never even thought that writing could be a gift. No body stands at the front of church on Sunday and says “I’m a writer for Jesus!”
But because I didn’t class writing as a gift I spent so long looking for my ‘gift’ when it was already there right in front of me and I was completely missing it!
Maybe you aren’t a writer, but you’re good at sport. Maybe you’re just a really friendly person. That can totally be your gift! People are drawn to you and it gives you more opportunities to share Jesus with them. It’s important to open your mind to all the possibilities and try and distance yourself from the idea that the only gifts available are the ones you see on the stage.
Your gift doesn’t have to be your job, for most people it’s not! However, today’s culture would have you believe that if you aren’t making money from your gift then you’re not making the most of it. Whatever your gift, you will have it to serve others.
Our gifts can sometimes change and develop overtime, perhaps you have a particular gift for a season in your life. But whatever your gift, use it to give back to God!
This doesn’t cover everything there is to know about gifts so make sure you comment below if you have any questions and we’ll be happy to answer more specifically.
