If you are a Christian, you have at least one spiritual gift, a special ability from the Holy Spirit. You probably have more than one. Gifts like healing, miraculous powers, or speaking in different tongues may seem the most impressive. But gifts like serving, teaching, encouraging, or paying bills are no less important (Romans 12:4-8). So be the person God made you to be. Use each gift the Spirit gives you to use.

The church is Christ's body, and a body needs its different parts. Wouldn't it be crazy if the ear said, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body"? What if the body were one big eyeball? It would look hideous! And how would it hear? So don't envy someone else's gift or think your own gift is unimportant. The church needs you and your gift.

At the same time, you need the church and its full range of gifts. Don't think your own gift is so great and you are so grand that you don't need others. "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you." The preacher or miracle worker can't say to the person whose gift is "only" helping or organizing, "I don't need you."

In each church the Spirit brings together different people and gifts. All are important. Value the Spirit's gifts in others and benefit from them. At the same time, value your own gifts and use each talent to help others and honor Jesus.

PRAYER--Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the gifts of the Spirit. Use other Christians and their gifts to enrich me, and use me and my gifts to enrich them, to your glory. Amen.