January 5, 2023

The Bible Edge

Everyone needs an Edge, Believers can have the Bible Edge

Proverbs 18:16

A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.

What is your gift? You have one, at least one! Understanding how things work together to create a building where none stood before. An innate knowledge of the body and how all its parts work together. Using words to communicate a thought in such a way that others can come to understand. Managing people, money, or the details of a complex problem. Or one of the spiritual gifts: prophecy, faith, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, ruling, and/or showing mercy. Within your soul, body, and spirit there is a gift, one that God gave you at birth or at the new birth.

If a person knows that gift and employs the gift industriously it will make room for them. Think about it like a chemistry formula. Let’s say the desired end of the formula is success. God has two parts in this formula, you have one part. Your part is to use the gift, put it to work. God’s part is twofold, one He gives the gift as it pleases Him, and two He works behind the scenes assuring that there is a room to use that gift. He did not give you the gift He gave you to sit unused, but rather to be used, and enjoyed, for a lifetime.

There is only one part of this threefold formula for success that is in question: Is the gift being used? Some wish they had other gifts; some ignore the gift; some lazily flow through life putting little energy to anything much less their gift. A gifted speaker will find a place to speak, but only if they speak. By not speaking the gift is rendered ineffective. The greatest speakers are those who are gifted and speak. The same with every other gift.

By now someone may be thinking; “What is my gift?” The simple answer is this, what do you find easy to do and like doing? All baseball fans know that some players are simply gifted and some have to work diligently to achieve success on the baseball diamond. Many times the non-gifted person will be jealous of the gifted person, and the gifted person runs the risk of being judgmental and prideful, even to the point of putting down others. Frankly, a person who is not gifted is not gifted in that area for a reason. God’s own reason. The person who is gifted in an area would do well to remember their ability is a gift, a supernatural gift from a loving Father in heaven.

So, find your gift, and use it any which way you can. It will make room for you; it will bring you before great people. That is the Bible Edge on using your gift wisely.

William Howe, Ph.D.