God’s Absolute Sovereignty, Spiritual Disciplines, and Using Spiritual Gifts

AN IDEA FROM ME

 According to the Bible, God declares the end from the beginning (Is 46:10), and God is sovereign over everything that comes to pass. The Lord is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases (Ps 115:3). He creates all things (Ge 1:1). He even creates the evil for the day of calamity (Is 45:7).

What that means is God is not evil himself, but He is totally sovereign over everything that happens, even evil. And what we find is that, nothing in our lives is trivial. Not even our suffering, not even our mistakes, not even our sins. God is working all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose (Ro 8:28).

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A QUOTE FROM SOMEBODY ELSE

“My central claim is that we can become like Christ by doing one thing—by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knew how to live. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father.”

—Dallas Willard, as cited in Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1991), 21.

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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

1 Peter 4:10–11 says, 

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:  whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Have you ever thought about what your spiritual gift is? If so, how have you been able to use it to serve God’s people?