I just love those catalogs that fill my mailbox unsolicited.  It’s like old-fashioned window shopping, only I don’t have to leave my comfy lounge chair.  Each page tempts me with styles in the season’s newest colors, styles that look fabulous on the youthful models.  OK, I mostly enjoy looking, but sometimes I do order a little something, call it a gift to me.

What kind of gifts do you like?  Do you like practical gifts or those intended purely for enjoyment?  Do you like gifts you wouldn’t get for yourself, gifts that will improve your life, or perhaps homemade gifts because of the love that went into making them? 

True faith is a gift we wouldn’t and couldn’t get for ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can give it to us. (Talk about a gift that improves a person’s life!) The Spirit clothes us with the righteousness of Christ – “clothing” that makes us beautiful in the eyes of God.  Faith is never something we can earn by ourselves; someone has earned it for us.  Handmade?  You bet. The nails in his hands have given this beautiful gift to us.

When it comes to spiritual gifts, the gifts of the Spirit are always exactly what we need, and they are delivered just when we need them. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, discernment, knowledge, giving, prophecy, ministry, and mercy.  These gifts are not for our own personal advantage or greatness, but they are given “for the profit of all.”  Do we all have the same gift?  No, we sure don’t.  Only when we work together, can we carry out the mission that God gives us.

May each of us thank God for the gifts the Spirit has given us and seek to use them for God’s glory!

Judy