talent

40 Days of Praise — Day 27

/ taethne

I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BLIEVED by Daniel Whittle

I know not why God’s wondrous grace, To me He hath made known

Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love, Redeemed me for His own

I know not how this saving faith, To me He did impart

Nor how, believing in His Word, Wrought peace within my heart

I know not how the Spirit moves, Convincing us of sin

Revealing Jesus through the Word, Creating faith in Him

I know not what of good or ill, May be reserved for me

Of weary ways or golden days, Before His face I’ll see

I know not when my Lord may come, At night or noonday fair

Nor if I’ll walk the vale with Him, Or meet Him in the air

REFRAIN:

But I know whom I have believed, And am persuaded that He is able

To keep that which I’ve committed, Unto Him against that day

This hymn has always resonated with me, from my childhood until now. I do not pretend to know why God loves me. I do not pretend to know how He could ever forgive me nor why He would. He, in His mercy, showered me with His grace. That act of kindness overwhelms me now even more than it did when I first experienced it.

               I truly do understand that His Spirit gave me faith to believe the truth of His words. That His Spirit brought understanding to my mind, conviction to my soul, repentance to my heart but how that occurred – it just did. One moment I was living for me, the next I was bowed under the Spirit’s leadership, crying out to God for mercy and forgiveness. What a miracle.

               It is also a miracle that as we read His Word the Spirit makes it come alive, imparting its wisdom and truth to us. God’s Spirit does create faith in us, just as He creates new life and transforms our minds. I don’t know when Jesus will return. He may return for me today. I may die and return with Him years from now but I do know He will return with His saints to judge the ungodly.

               I don’t know many things about the God I have served for 50 + years now. But I do know this: He hides my soul in the palm of His hand and is faithful to keep it forever. I love how the refrain of the hymn is a direct quote from 2 Timothy 1:12. God is faithful and He is able to keep us from falling. He never fails to keep a promise and His Spirit has sealed me in His love forever, praise His holy name.

Thank you, Lord, for keeping my soul safe forever. Thank you for redeeming it. Thank you for sanctifying it. You are a great God and worthy to be praised.

A Tool or an Excuse?

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In past years, I used to use spiritual gift assessment inventories with various congregations to help them discover the talents and gifts God had blessed them with. We would follow this up with studies on how to use those gifts in service to God through the church, community outreach, etc.  These last few years, I have hesitated in using such tools. My hesitancy was based on observations that they were being misused by the very people I was hoping to help. It seemed that once a gift was identified, it was hard for people to volunteer to do anything outside their “gift” area. Far from helping them, I felt I had enabled them to become lazy, giving them an excuse to not do anything out of their comfort zone. I do not believe that God only gives people one gift. I believe that many times God calls us to do things we are not gifted or talented in, so that He can show His power through us. A friend of mine argues that instead of creating specialists in the church, we need to focus on making generalists, people who can function in multiple ways. I agree. I believe that a church full of people cross-trained in many different areas will acquire the skills necessary because God will give them what they need to accomplish His purpose. How wonderful to have a church filled with trained pre-school workers, musicians, worship leaders, and grief counselors. How fantastic to have people trained in public speaking, how to develop a sermon or how to teach teen-agers. What a joy it would be to have a church full of people ready and willing to visit the sick, trained in apologetics or capable of leading a prayer meeting.

Maybe it is just me, but the more I see how spiritual gift inventories and tools are being used, the more I think it is just an outgrowth of our narcissistic society, wanting to know how special we are. Usually, we all know what we are strongest at and weakest in, and using the tools only confirms what we have suspected or known. It would be better to promote cross-training in all areas, so that like the Apostle Paul we can become all things to all men so that by all means we may win some of them to Jesus Christ. Lets go for a broad approach to finding out just how much we can learn to do for Christ, rather than using the spiritual cop-out of, “that’s not my gift.”