Download the activity sheet here
1 Peter 4:10 – God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
The Bible teaches us that God is the source of all our gifts and talents. God gives us all skills and abilities all to His good pleasure. As for C. S Lewis, his gifts were his ability to use his imagination to help others understand the wonders of God. He had great understanding and wisdom about God and the Christian life, but what brought that talent to life was how he shared it. His gift of teaching and explaining exercised in his writings have helped countless seeking minds glimpse those wonderful things about God that he himself experienced.
It’s worth spending time considering what your gifts and talents might be. We all have spiritual gifts from God, He hasn’t left anyone out. Use the downloadable sheet to spark some ideas. Some of the books on the shelves are already filled in with some suggestions, see if you can fill in some more. What talents do you see in yourself? What do you see in others?
There are also some books that have suggestions about how those gifts and talents might be used to serve others. God hasn’t given us these spiritual gifts just for ourselves. God gives these gifts to us so that we might use them to help or inspire others around us, just as C. S Lewis did. C. S Lewis could have used his talent for imagination and writing and kept his thoughts all to himself, but then we wouldn’t have the world of Narnia.
Elsewhere in the Bible we’re encouraged to not hide our light under a basket, but instead to shine out like a light in darkness, like a city on a hill. (Matthew 5:14-16) If we shine out with the light God gives us, then we draw people to God. What a strange thing that God would partner with us to bring people to his family! But that’s exactly what he does. He gives us those spiritual gifts so that we can shine like stars in the night sky. We shouldn’t hide away, but instead use what God has given us.
Think about what your spiritual gifts might be, then think about ways you can use those gifts for the benefit of others. I’m sure that as we all strive to do so, like C. S Lewis, we will find an unending source of wonder, inspiration and joy as we delight in what God has given us.