I Peter 4:10-11 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Have you ever sat back and asked yourself the question: “What can I do for the kingdom of God?” Seriously, what can we do as mere humans? We don’t have godly powers or abilities. We can’t perform miracles. We can’t save the lost. We can’t change hearts. We can’t do any of those things. No, in reality, we can’t, but guess what? God can do all of those things through each one of us. As followers of Christ, we have been given the wonderful ability and responsibility to accomplish His work. God clearly can do all things without us, but He amazingly invites us to be part of the process of bringing others to Him. He invites us to help His children grow in their faith and maturity. He invites us to care for those in need. He invites us into the service of the kingdom. As followers of Christ, we become willing servants of Christ and servants of man.
God gifts each and every one of us with unique gifts and talents, and He does so with the intention that we will utilize those gifts and talents to serve Him and serve others. We aren’t here to serve ourselves despite the way the rest of the world thinks. We are here to serve Christ, and we are here to serve Him well. We are to listen to Christ and do His will. We realize that we can’t accomplish any of the tasks set before us on our own, yet when we place faith in Christ and rely on Him fully, He can and will use us to accomplish much.
This year is coming to a rapid close. It has been a bumpy ride for sure. We have had our ups and downs, and it seems we’ve had a few more downs than ups. It is very easy to let the distractions of the world get us down. When things aren’t going our way or as we had planned them, it is easy to take a back seat, throw our hands up, and quit. When we feel that we aren’t making any progress, when we feel like we aren’t reaching anyone, when we feel like the world is falling apart and maybe we are too, we begin to have a strong desire to quit. However, if we take a moment to truly look around us, we realize that we can’t quit. We realize that this may just be the time that we have been called to action.
Look around. Really look around. Our churches are empty. Doors are closing. People are lonely. This beautiful world that God created is becoming a very dark place, and it is up to us to bring the light back into the darkness. When we see how dark the world appears to be, we feel overwhelmed. We may even feel as though there is nothing we can do, but we tend to forget that we have the brightest light in the world within us. All we have to do is let that light shine. How do we overcome the dark? We let the light shine, and the light of Christ is within each and every child of God. We just have to let that light loose. Let it shine. what better time of the year is there than now for us to shine. We can shine by sharing a smile with a lonely stranger. We can buy a meal for the poor. Spend time with a lonely, shut in. Invite a friend to church…even when they’ve said no a thousand times…invite them again. Continue to share the love of Christ each and every day. We can mentor new Christians. We can share the gospel with this lost and dying world. The light within each of us is greater than all of the festive, beautiful Christmas lights. We only have to let that light shine.
So if you are asking yourself what you can do this holiday season and every day of the year, the best answer is to let your light shine for Christ. We can do this through many different ways. Each of us have our own unique set of talents, we must ask the Lord to show us how we can best use our gifts, and He will show us. Nothing is too big for our Lord. We only have to trust Him and remember that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!
Inspirations from the Funny Farm 