Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Gifts (of the Spirit or service) (11/22/07)
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TITLE: Neverending Love | Previous Challenge Entry
By Norma-Anne Hough
11/28/07 -
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ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Paul goes into great detail in 1 Corinthians 12: 8-11.
This chapter is the “famous one” which all the preachers latch onto. He also mentions words of wisdom, words of knowledge, adding healing, miracle-working, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues.
With all these gifts available to us plus many others one begins to wonder why we do not make use of them. Who does not love to receive gifts? The thoughts of gifts conjure up thoughts of beautifully wrapped birthday or Christmas gifts. In our family my daughters love to make the wrapping almost as exciting as the gift! Opening one of their gifts one has to be careful not to destroy the work of art. In my own family we had the rip and look action, so it took me quite a time to get used to the girl’s way of doing things!
Father God loves us with such love and passion. His greatest desire is for us to be blessed and to receive as much as we can.
All the above mentioned gifts are important, but to me there are others which stand out.
Number one: Faith. Where would we be without faith? It is imperative to have faith in God, Jesus and Holy Spirit before you can receive. Faith that He will do as promised. Faith that He is more than able to do what he promises. Trust is linked to faith as you need trust. Our children trust us implicitly to do that which we have promised to do. There have been times when it has not been humanly possible to do some things, but we have then explained the reasons to them. Should we not then trust God to do exactly that which He has promised to do?
Then there is hope. We have to hope in something. Without hope life would be pretty bleak. Hope shines into the darkness of addiction, abuse and so many other tragic circumstances.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all
And sweetest in the gale is heard.”
Emily Dickinson.
Love is the most important of all these. We need to love God. His love for us is without question. He has loved us with a never ending love. His love follows us wherever we go. We cannot escape it. We can try but will not succeed. From personal experience I know that His love goes wherever I go. It followed me into plenty of disasters, saw me trip and fall many times and lose my way. Yet with gentleness and kindness he brought me back. He picked me up, dusted me off and set me on the right path again. His never ending love was the factor that brought me through my addiction and abuse. His love is that which decides which gift I need the most and when I need it the most. As my children trust me to give them that which they need the most, so too do I trust God to give me whichever gift I need.
My prayer is that each of us will receive from His Holy Spirit that which He most desires us to have and that we in turn will be a blessings to others. Praise His holy name.
“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corth.13:13 New King James
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You've quoted one of my favorite poets, but you stopped the poem at an odd point. Maybe one line less, or the whole poem, would make more sense.
You really nailed the topic!