The Gifts: Thinking Sensibly

On Sunday, September 29th, we closed out our Gifts series. Here are my big takeaways from this sermon:

“For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.” Romans 12:3

According to Strong’s concordance, to think sensibly is to be of sound mind or sober thinking. When I choose to think soberly of myself, it does a couple of things. First, it helps me celebrate others when they use their gifts instead of being envious and aspiring to be them. In his message, Fox stated that aspiration is rooted in want and can kill relationships. And we all know that envy is no better. Wanting for myself and being envious is not sober thinking.

Secondly, it helps with fear. This is a big one for me. Sometimes we think too much of ourselves, but sober thinking is humble thinking. In another message, it was said, “Use your gift. You are not big enough or powerful enough to mess up what God is doing.” For years I have let fear of messing up stop me. That is not thinking sensibly, because I am not that powerful.

In the message, he used the parable of talents (Matthew 25:14-30) to talk about growing your gift instead of hiding it. God wants to increase what He has given us. We should not hide our talents (giftings), rather we should go out and increase them! God has placed me at Move and has assigned me a measure of faith, but it is my responsibility to press into God by praying to discover the gifts (and grow them) and the calling He has placed on my life. I have grown to love God’s people, and I want to see all that God has for the Body. Therefore, I don’t want to limit the Body of Christ by not using my gifts and walk (or in my case, roll) in my measure. We are all ministers.

Don’t let fear hold you back from what God wants you to do. Don’t be self-conscious, be God-conscious.