Be all we can be

DEVOTION

ROMANS

BE ALL WE CAN BE

Rom 12:3-8

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

NIV

Although it is true doctors can remove certain interior organs and we can still survive, living somewhat of a normal life, whatever is defined as normal, God did not design our bodies without any interior organs. We also can live without one or more limbs, or our hearing and our sight, but God did not design us that way. When God made man in his image he made him whole, not missing anything. The importance of this is within the analogy of the body Paul uses to describe how the body of Christ is to function. He goes into greater detail in other letters, but here he still makes that point. Each believer has a function as each part of our bodies have a function. If a member of our body is not doing its part, we are handicapped in a sense. The body of Christ is not supposed to be handicapped, or crippled. It needs all members doing their part. The question is, what is our part? In order to determine where we fit into the body of Christ, we need not think too highly of ourselves, but think of ourselves with sober judgement in accordance with the measure of faith God has given us. That is sobering in itself. We do not even generate our faith, for God is the one who gives us a measure of faith. This goes hand in grove with what Jesus said about not being able to anything apart from him.

John 15:5-8

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

NIV

So with the measure of faith God has given us, we have to believe he did not give us that faith just to be saved, but to be a part of the Body of Christ, functioning as he designed us to. But what is our function? Because God designed us, formed us as whole beings, with each member doing what he designed it to do, as members of the Body of Christ we have to believe God designed us as a functioning member. This means there is not one member of the Body of Christ without a function, a gift, a contributing member. So then we cannot just be a church attender, or a bump on a log. If all we do is sit and soak, like a sponge, just being there listening to either a Sunday school teacher, or a small group leader, or the pastors sermon, and never give, never doing our function, never being squeezed out, so to speak, we will soon begin to smell. So we each have different gifts according to the grace given us. That grace is the one which is defined as the divine influence upon our heart and how it is reflected in our lives. So that reflection is our gift at work in the body. God influences us as to what gift we have to contribute to the Body of Christ. That means we do not decide how we fit in, God does. But the point is we all have to be doing our part, if we are listening to God, that is. When we make the choice as to how we fit in, what our gift is, then we are malfunctioning, and like a malfunctioning organ of our body it either has to be fixed or cut out. If we make the choice of what part we want to be, then we are nothing more than any other earthly organization. Some religious groups, churches or denominations put their faith in a spiritual gift assessment survey. They may work to an extent, but does it rule out the influence of God? When God put his influence upon our heart, we know, we just know deep inside what part we are supposed to be. We do not have any doubt as to how we are to function in the body. However, we have to do our part, we have to be actively engaged in doing what God has determined for us to do. No sitting on our hands, no lazy lacks-a-daisy, do nothing life for us, and no retiring from being our part. We can never stop being all that God intents us to be. According to his grace and faith given to us, we have to be all we can be.