SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/3/2024 8:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Renew Your Gift”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 1:6
Message of the verses: “And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (1 Timothy 1:6).”
I want to begin this SD by looking at the words to kindle
afresh and the word in the Greek for these words is anazpureo, which literally means “to keep the fire alive,” to fan
the embers into flame and not let them die out.
I like to watch people’s stories on YouTube about camping or building
cabins in the woods to live in. I have
been watching the story of a man who has three boys and he takes one or two or sometimes
all three out into the woods in order to build a primitive cabin for them to
stay in. One of the things that he seems
to be doing is lighting a fire and then trying to keep it going. You see him bending down near where the fire
looks like it is out and blow on it to get it started again. I think that this describes these words to
kindle afresh very well. MacArthur
writes that this word “carries the same idea of constancy as does the apostle’s
declaration, ‘I die daily’ (1 Cor. 15:31).
We need to continually bury self-will in order to continually allow
Christ’s Holy Spirit to work His will through us. Just as every believer, like Paulo, needs to
wake up each day and bury self, every believer also needs each day to
continually kindle afresh the gift of God he has received. The negative expression of that command is ‘Do
not quench the Spirit’ (1 Thess. 5:19). Under
the Spirit’s guidance, and in His power, we must regularly exercise the gift we
have received from God, lest it atrophy from neglect and disuse.”
Now the word gift translates charisma, and this denotes a specific expression charis (‘grace’) and so therefore it carries the idea of a grace gift. This refers to the general categories of spiritual gifts that Paul explains in the 12th chapter of Romans and also in the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians. God is the One who bestows these enablements on believers according to His own divine will, totally apart from any personal merit, qualification, or seeking. MacArthur writes “Therefore, ‘since we have gifts [charismata, plural of charisma] that differ according to the grace [charis] given to us,’ Paul admonished believers in Rome, ‘let each exercise them accordingly’ (Rom. 12:6).
“In the present passage, Paul uses the singular charisma in the same way as Peter does
in his first letter: ‘As each one has
received a spiritual gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God; …so that in all things God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.’ (1 Peter 4:10-11). In both
instances the apostles are speaking of each believer’s unique spiritual
giftedness, which may encompass several gifts.”
I just want to add that when a person becomes a believe
that this is one of the things that happens to them, and that is they are given
one or more spiritual gifts in order to build up the body of Christ. Christ told His disciples that it was good
for Him to go away, for that would mean that the Holy Spirit would come upon
those who are believers and a part of that is the giving of gift or gifts in
order to continue doing the will of God in His Church. The Church is the body of Christ doing on
earth what He desires us to do for the cause of Christ.
Spiritual meaning for my life: I desire to
do the work, through the power of the Holy Spirit what Christ has ordained me
to do for the cause of Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Make
sure that I am clean from sin in order to be used by God, which means that I
must confess my sins to stay clean.
12/3/2024 9:13 AM
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