Stir Up The Gift
Scripture Reference: II Timothy 1:6 (KJV)
2 Timothy 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
-We need to stir up the gift that God has blessed us with.
-Many people are looking for something new but this may not
always be the answer.
- We need to take a closer look at what God has already blessed us
with
- We also need to consider whether or not we can stir that (what we
already have) up again to get to where God would have us to go.
One of my favorite summertime hobbies is having cookouts. In my opinion, I am the best cookout artist in the city. Of course my wife thinks she can cook better than me and that is mainly because she is from Texas and I am from Georgia but this is far from the truth. When I cook food on a grill outside using coals, I like to keep a nice fire at an even and hot temperature. After a couple of hours and a decrease in temperature, we take the coals that are dim or not lit all the way and mix them and turn them. This causes the coals to get hot all over again. To an inexperienced cook they would probably want to add new coals because they think that those have had it. That is not always the answer however.
- It is true that after continuous hours of cooking with the same
coals then they are burned out and they do need replacing.
- This often occurs much later than what we think though.
- After realizing that we need to change the coals we have to be
careful not to mix the coals that are not hot with the ones that are.
- If we put burned out coals on top of the hot coals it makes the hot
ones work harder. We need to quarantine the coals in separate
piles for maximum heat in minimum time.
We have to understand that coals can lie in low heat for a long time and to someone who doesn’t know any better they can seem as though they have been rendered ineffective and need to be replaced. This is not always true however because more often than not they are still good and they will only need a little stirring to get them going again. Almost as strong as they were the first time. To the novice cook they seldom get to see the results of stirring up the coals because they get rid of them far too fast. Just as we do with the coals on the fire, we lose a great deal of interest in things of God that we are not using making them seem useless to us.
If we render a thing useless then it is doomed to be left in the garage until deemed trash worthy and then thrown away. All the while we complain about how much we need that same thing we are complaining about not having.
If we are given a gift from someone, it is only polite that we use that gift. Especially when the gift is something that we need anyway.
ILLUSTRATION:
Let’s say that it is Christmas time at the Lane house and everyone is getting gifts. The gift I give my daughter is very special to me. It was a nice knitted sweater, of course it wasn’t name brand or anything exclusive. However, I noticed that the one that she usually wore was just a bit too small and she could not enjoy herself with her friends while she played outside. Seeing how it was the Christmas season and we always enjoy exchanging gifts during this season I took my time and went to the store and carefully selected what I thought was the perfect sweater for her to wear. After seeing the sweater and the lack of fashion that existed my daughter was not as enthused about it as I was about giving it to her. However instead of hurting my feelings and letting me know how much she did not like the sweater she actually acted as if she liked it and couldn’t wait to wear it. I was as proud as a father could be about this purchase and gift I had given.
I am glad that she chose to use this sweater. It would be very inconsiderate of my daughter for me to give her this new sweater as a gift and she go outside and complain about how cold she was but never chooses to wear the nice sweater I gave her. Now that she has chosen to wear the sweater I gave her, I am ready to take her to the store and buy whatever kind of sweater she really wants. As long as she makes sure that she always uses the one that I gave her, I am willing to give her more.
Many of us do this very thing. We complain about how we need God to bless us with this, that or the other when we have not even used the gift that He has already blessed us with. God is there with a multitude of gifts to bless us with but first we need to be obedient and use the one that He has already blessed us with.
- Some of us are still trying to figure out what gift God has given us. We haven’t even come to the understanding that we even have a gift from God yet. Many of the ones that have gifts are often found misusing what God has blessed us with.
- We don’t even recognize just how good He has been to us.
In this scripture Paul was not talking to the unsaved. He was Timothy (II Timothy 1:2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.)
Though this letter was written directly to Timothy, Paul was ultimately talking to the people of the church. Paul was sure that Timothy would do a great work in the church and this was an encouraging letter telling Timothy to use the things that God had given him to bless the people of God.
Some of us are still in the mode of waiting to receive our gift from God when we should be out helping others to understand and use their gift from God. It is truly different when you become an adult and you are now expected to be the gift giver versus the receiver. People who grew up having big birthday parties and extravagant Christmas’ are perplexed when now their family and friends are coming to them empty handed with their hands out fully expecting big gifts.
Why should God bless the gifted man again when he refuses to help others with their gifts?
Can God use you to help someone else with their gift or are you a gift giver who still thinks that they should be a receiver?
Sometimes we may have the gift and know that we have the gift but the only thing that we lack is the motivation to use our gift. This is a little joke that I recently picked up off line it‘s called “Let’s Kiss“.
Illus.: “Let’s Kiss”
There was a pastor who had a parrot. All the parrot would say was, “Let’s pray, let’s pray.” The pastor tried to teach him to say other things but to no avail. He learned that one of his deacons had a parrot. The parrot would only say, “Let’s kiss. Let’s kiss.” So the pastor decided to invite the deacon and his parrot over to his house. When the deacon arrived they put the parrots into the same cage to see what would happen. The deacon’s parrot said, “Let’s kiss, let’s kiss.” The pastor’s parrot said, “Thank you, Lord. My prayers have been answered.”
It is evident by the way that the parrot began to speak other words so quickly that he had the power and the gift to be able to do it the whole time. The only thing that he lacked was the motivation to use the gift that God had blessed him with. Many of us are just the same as this parrot, we are filled with things from God but we just refuse to use those gifts freely, we have to be enticed.
Well my fellow saints it is my prayer that it will not take 6 men standing side by side to finally get you to come to church. It would truly be a blessing for you to come and share your gift from God with the world (or at least try). It’s not that going to church has anything to do with your gift from God but at least you will be headed in the right direction in learning about your gift and how to use it.
CONCLUSION
When God gives us a gift the least we can do is be gracious enough to let Him enjoy us using it every once in a while.
Who having a light will hide it under a bushel barrel? (Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.)
There has got to be a way to get the saints of God to get up and get busy.
We need to stir up the gift from God
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, forgive me for not being as effective as I should be with you in using my gifts and talents to lift your Holy name. I am thankful above all things for you seeing me worthy enough to bless me with such a special and precious gift. Lord I pray now for even more confidence to do your will on my life. Lord thank you and I truly love you from this day forward I will do whatever it is that you have empowered me to do to be a blessing to your people with your gift from me. Amen
Thank you. May God continue to bless you and keep you. Amen
Your Friend
Minister Juan D. Lane Sr.
