PLAY ME (Friday Devotional)

 

According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

- Romans 12:6-8

Every now and then, you’ll see a piano in a public place—a hotel lobby, a coffee shop, a department store, even outdoors in a town square—with a placard imploring passersby, “PLAY ME.” When that opportunity presents itself, something interesting happens: almost no one with an ounce of musical talent can resist sitting down and playing a few bars. Pianists who had come to that place for entirely different reasons suddenly stop what they’re doing and just play for a few minutes. After all, when the opportunity to use your gift presents itself, it seems a waste not to do so.

I wonder what it would be like if believers took that same approach when it comes to the spiritual gifts God graciously gives to us. The Bible teaches that all who receive the Holy Spirit are empowered by that same Spirit, given “varieties of gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:4) in order to help carry out God’s will on this earth. Blessedly, each of us are empowered differently—some are enabled to teach, others to serve, others to give, and so on—but all are empowered in some way. God does not leave any of his children empty-handed.

But too often, we make our way through life acting as though those gifts are incidental instead of fundamental, as though they have no place outside the church building. Given the chance to serve in the workplace, the servant instead goes about his business. Given the chance to give to someone in need, the giver instead clutches her purse more tightly. Like a pianist passing a public piano, we waste golden opportunities to put our gifts to use.

The truth is that God presents us with situations every day where we can be beacons for Christ, where we can use the gifts God has given us to share the gospel in word and deed. But that’s the thing—we have to use those gifts. Like a piano inviting you to “PLAY ME,” life is full of opportunities for you to do what God has empowered you to do. How will you respond when those opportunities come your way?