Unused Gifts

Have you ever given a gift to someone that you were convinced was perfect for them, only to find later that they never used it? That feels pretty lousy, doesn’t it? It feels like a waste of time and energy. Can you imagine God feeling that way about the many, many gifts that He gives us? We have been blessed beyond measure. It is incredible to think about the ways God has blessed us and provided for us, both as a church and as individuals. He has heavily invested in us. This applies to financial provision and also to spiritual gifts. God has given each of us gifts intended to be used for blessing others. As the apostle Peter put it, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.” (1 Peter 4:10 ESV)

Dr. Evans is quoted as describing “unused” gifts as a cancer that can cause great harm to the church. He said, “Cancer is one of the debilitating diseases of our day. You know what cancer is? Cells that don’t want to go with the program. They are deviant cells that have their own agenda. Now, this would be just fine … if they would leave your body. The problem with cancer is that these deviant cells still want to hang out in you. They don’t want to go anywhere. They just want to be independent. Cancer cells still want blood, they still want to eat, and they still want oxygen because they want to grow. Not only do they want to grow, they also want to spread and metastasize. So in other words, they want to siphon off the body, but they don’t want to contribute to it. And ultimately, unless addressed radically, the whole body is in trouble, because what they want are the benefits.”

He went on to say, “Cancer exists in the church today too. There are cells of people that want the benefits of being in the body without the contributions. They want the sermons, they want the songs, they want the ministry to them, they want the toys for their kids, they want the food for their pantry, and they want the counseling for their problem. They want all the things that the body of Christ is designed to give, but they don’t want to be part of the body. They just want to hang out in it.” 

This is the tragedy of unused or under-used spiritual gifts. They steal from the body of Christ, instead of contributing to it. In our season of spiritual spring cleaning, I challenge you to consider how you are using your gifts for His glory. When we choose to not use them, we are like the man in the story of the parable of the talents, recorded in Matthew 25:14-30, who chose to bury the investment his master gave him. His logic for why he did so is quite telling. In his disobedience and neglect, he blamed God as the reason he did nothing but bury the investment. 

Perhaps that is what we do as well? We choose not to use what we have been given because we wish we had different gifts, or we want to hold onto them for ourselves. Regardless of the why, the end result is the same – the body of Christ misses out on the blessing of using our gifts for His glory. I promise that you are not too young or too old, too under- or over-educated, too rich or too poor, to use your gifts for His glory. 

Expectantly, 

Shawn 

P.S. Please join me in praying for our friends Bobbi Kovalik and Christie Jackson, and their families. They are mourning the loss of their father, Michael D. Green, earlier this week. His obituary is here.