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Stir Up Your Gift

In this series, we've been giving ourselves a spiritual check up. Part of most medical check-ups is a bit of practical advice to help overcome the weaknesses the doctor discovers. Every doctor I know advises patients to get a healthy amount of exercise, eat a balanced diet, stop smoking, avoid too much alcohol and so on. I’m going to assume that as we’ve been doing our spiritual checkup, you might have discovered a few areas of weakness, so in the next few installments, we’re going to look at some actions we can take to improve our spiritual health.

I’ll begin by giving you a personal illustration. I didn't learn to swim very quickly or very easily. I can remember at Medeba Bible Camp, when I was ten or eleven, I was standing on the dock and a swimming instructor was in the water. He is saying things like: “Don't you trust me?” (Of course I trust you.) “Don't you think I can teach you to swim?” (Of course I think you can teach me to swim.) “Well, jump in.” (No.)

For some of us as Christians, we get to a certain point and then we hold back. In effect, God says things like: “Don’t you trust me?” (Of course I trust you.) “Don’t you think I can make you more like My Son?” (We’ll at least you can head me in that direction.) “Then, live the life I’m offering you.” (No.)

In 2 Timothy 1:6 we read, "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Here, Paul is writing to a young man in ministry and he tells him that he needs to stir up the gift that is in him. That presupposes that Timothy has a spiritual gift. I would be certainly be among those who would tell you that every believer has at least one spiritual gift. God has equipped us so that we can be engaged in the work of the ministry of building up the body of Christ. That is what God's intention is.

Sometimes it is easy for us to have recognized and perhaps even to have exercised a spiritual gift for some time and then... I don't know what happens. Probably the same thing that happened to me after that summer at Medeba. That summer, I finally got into the water and became very comfortable. I learned to enjoy swimming as I never had before. But I am not interested in swimming at all anymore. If you want to take me to the Caribbean to play in the ocean, I’ll go with you, but I am not likely to take up swimming seriously. My interest cooled. This happens spiritually too. Paul says that spiritual gifts need to be stirred up and maybe you need your spiritual gifts stirred up.

God doesn’t make Christians like His Son, so that we can sit around looking good and admiring each other. He intends for us to use what he’s given to us on behalf of others. We need to consciously and intentionally stir up the gift, or gifts, we have received from Him, regularly.

Check up question 9: Am I diligently exercising my spiritual gift for the benefit of others and the glory of God?

Ron Hughes
© December 2008