Day 10 | Serve Often

Today’s Scripture:

“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” - 1 Peter 4:10

Full Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 4:7-11

Today’s Thought: 

Serving and giving to God and others around us helps us to take our eyes off ourselves and helps us see the greatness of our God in the world around us. We were never meant to do life all on our own. God desires that we use the gifts, abilities, and blessings that God has given us to help those around us and bring glory to God through our lives. God’s word reminds us that it’s truly “more blessed to give than to receive…” and the life and servanthood of Jesus is our ultimate example to follow.

In Matthew 20:28 it states, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…” Do you serve often? Do you have a favorite way to serve? Have you ever thought about using your spiritual gifts as a guidepost for finding areas to serve? There are a variety of spiritual gift inventories you can take to discover your spiritual gifts–leadership, teaching, prophecy, serving, mercy, exhortation and giving.

In Romans 12:6-8 it lists a variety of spiritual gifts, which is actually translated as “gifts of grace.” Grace is here in the movement of the Spirit in our lives–different kinds of grace, with different forms of expression, are given to different individuals, and they are to be cherished and used accordingly.

It is our responsibility to care for others and to be the Lord’s hands and feet. In our scripture for today from 1 Peter, it is calling us to serve others by living into and using our spiritual gifts. What are your spiritual gifts? In what ways do you serve? How are these two connected? Could you connect them even more?   

Today’s Prayer: 

Let us pray.

Lord, we lift up our lives to you knowing that we need you in every part of our life. We need you as we continue to grow in your word, in your service, in your hope of how we can love our neighbors each and every day. Lord, we pray that you would help us to identify our spiritual gifts. Provide ways in which we can serve our neighbors near and far. Today, we give our lives to you. Grow us faithfully to love as you do, unconditionally and always with hope in what is to come! We lift this prayer to you, and all God's People Said, AMEN.