Uses His Spiritual Gifts For God’s Glory And The Good Of Others

Uses His Spiritual Gifts For God’s Glory And The Good Of Others

A HERO’S TALE

Admit it: at some point, your bedroom has looked like a trash dump. Bed unmade; toys strewn across the floor; dirty clothes hanging from doorknobs; some unidentified, gooey substance sitting in the corner —not a pretty sight.

But even at its worst, your bedroom has nothing on how God’s holy temple looked when Joash became king.

Joash (who was also called Jehoash) assumed the throne of Judah, the southern kingdom of God’s people, in 835 BC after earlier wicked rulers had plunged the nation into chaos and idolatry (see 2 Kings 8–11 and 2 Chronicles 21–22).

As Baal worship grew in Judah, the people neglected God’s temple. The building began showing its age, and no one bothered to clean or repair it. The sons of evil Queen Athaliah, who ruled Judah before Joash, even stole some of the temple’s holy instruments and used them for Baal worship.

But all that ended when Joash became king at age seven. He was zealous about renewing the temple and personally oversaw the repairs. After many years of hard work, he “restored the Temple of God according to its original design and strengthened it” (2 Chronicles 24:13).

Nice job, Joash!

DECODING THE MESSAGE

Joash had a passion for the temple, and he possessed administrative abilities (like organization, delegation, etc.) to match. God has given you different spiritual gifts, abilities, and passions too. One of your jobs in life is to discover your gifts and use them for God’s glory and the good of others.

First, let’s make something clear: passions and spiritual gifts are often different from each other. You might excel at video games, but scoring high in Angry Birds or Mario Kart is not a spiritual gift! A spiritual gift is any ability that the Holy Spirit has given you to use for building up God’s people, the church.

However, you can put your passions to good use. Joash took his passion (restoring the temple) and matched it with his spiritual gift (administration) and accomplished greatness for God.

Here’s how you can learn what your spiritual gifts are:

• Read these Bible passages: Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, 28; Ephesians 4:11; and 1 Peter 4:10-11.
• Ask God to reveal your gifts to you.
• Ask others (like your parents) what they think your gifts might be.

What are you passionate about? Sports? Music? Art? Writing? Science? Whatever it is, match it with your spiritual gift and give God the glory!

BATTLE PLAN

Write down two lists: your passions and your spiritual gifts. Then figure out ways to combine the two, if possible.