Bringing Attention to God

DEVOTION 1 PETER BRINGING ATTENTION TO GOD 1 Peter 4:9-11 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. NIV I think being fond of guest meant a lot whole more than it does now in the sense guests stayed a great deal longer than. It would not be uncommon for a guest to stay months rather than a couple of hours as is most cases now. But once again this section speaks to more than being hospitable, as it includes all idea of all gifts of the Spirit. Whatever God has bestowed upon each of us we need to be using it for the benefit of the kingdom of God by serving others. What good is a gift unless it is used? Why would God bother to give each one of us one of the gifts of the Spirit if all he wanted was for us to be gifted for our own sake? I suppose I could be very hospitable to myself, or I speak to myself, I could serve myself, but that would be rather pointless because God would not get any glory at all. So it would seem we need to be gracious to one another and when we speak we should not just utter words of nonsense or talk about the stupid stuff of the world, but we should be speaking the very words of God. How offer does that happen? Maybe that is just for use who have been called to preach or teach and the rest of us can just go our merry way talking about dance with the stars, American idol, or some other stuff. Of course each of must put aside self if we are going to serve, now again maybe that is just for a select few who have been called to serve, the rest of us can simple forget about it. But then what do we do with each one should use the gift he has received unless of course God simple does not give everyone a gift, but we know that is not true, because he does. So we are still left with this command from God to use our gift, whatever it is, for the benefit of others and thus bring honor and glory to God. However, we need to do it in such a manner that it is with the power of God and not from our own abilities. How does God get the credit if all we do is what we have studied to do? Maybe we have to be willing to serve in areas where we have no abilities, but only a gift from God so He would be glorified and not us. Just a thought, but maybe he gifts us from birth and has us learn skills and knowledge so we can use that for his Kingdom also. Either way we have to be careful not to bring attention to our own self, but to bring attention to God.