Day 33

Every Part Does Its Work

2 min read

Thought of the day

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Some people love building things from the time they're kids: Legos, model cars, collections carefully organized and cared for. That instinct to build doesn't disappear when someone meets Jesus. It gets redirected.

Paul describes the church as a body that "grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:16). Notice the phrase: each part. Not just the obviously gifted, the naturally outgoing, or the people who already have a platform. Every part, doing its own specific work, builds up the whole thing.

Think about what God has actually put in you. Maybe it's leadership, or teaching, or a gift for encouragement. Maybe it's something that doesn't sound very spiritual on the surface: growing vegetables, fixing things, throwing a great dinner, being the person who remembers everyone's names and birthdays. None of that has to stay small. It can become exactly the kind of contribution Paul is describing.

What are you naturally drawn to: are you using it to build your own life, or has it been surrendered to build something bigger? A love for organizing things can build a spreadsheet just for you, or it can help a ministry function well. A love for coaching can build a winning season, or it can shape a kid's character for life. Same skill, different aim.

God doesn't usually erase the things you're naturally good at when you follow Him. He redirects them. Today, think of one thing you're good at or drawn to that you've mostly used for yourself. Ask what it might look like to hand that specific thing over, and let it build something with a longer shelf life than your own comfort or reputation.

Prayer prompt

Thank God for the specific gifts, skills, and passions He's placed in you, whatever they are. Ask Him to show you where you've been using something good mostly to build your own life instead of His kingdom. Ask Him to redirect one thing you're already good at toward building up someone else this week.

ScriptureNIV

Ephesians 4:16

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

1 Corinthians 12:18-20

But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Exodus 31:1-5

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.

1 Corinthians 12:24-27

while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.