by Desiree Bustamante
Your gifts paint His masterpiece.
“I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.”
1 Corinthians 1:4 New Living Translation
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link
The paint in this pan is rich with a variety of colors. When they are blended and brushed across paper, by a gifted artist, they create a beautiful, heartfelt, painting. Not everyone has this talent though, but my husband does. He is a talented artist, and art teacher, and painting comes rather effortlessly to him. I do not have that gift. My art ability has improved since knowing him, but it is not my gift.
There might be times when we envy other people’s spiritual gifts and abilities. We desire a different gift than God blessed us with, because we rank certain gifts as disproportionately impressive. Maybe we covet those we judge as more gifted, or “spiritual,” than we are. We envy their life’s painting that we view as richer and exceedingly saturated with the vibrant colors of rich blessings.
We focus solely on their painting and not on our Teacher.
It’s never about what we create on our own, but what our Heavenly Father creates through us for His purposes. He gives us all we need to skillfully complete the masterpiece that He wants us to paint. When we surrender to His will, and show our gratitude for His gifts, then we can create, through Him alone, the most brilliant and inspirational life picture that clearly sends the message that God is our master painter and teacher.
After all, everything we do should be ultimately for God’s glory, not our own.
“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”
1 Peter 4:10-11 New Living Translation
Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Where can I see your artwork ?
Allen,
This is Pastor Doug Brauner. Each one of the bloggers provides their own pictures. If you would like to see some of my pictures you can follow me on Instagram at douglasbrauner. I try to post a picture every day. Blessings.
I will have Des respond to your request as I don’t know where her husband’s artwork can be viewed. Thank you for your question. PD
My husband doesn’t have a website for his art. We do Christmas and Easter cards, he has a lot around our house and he gives some of it away. If you like, I can send you a few photos of his work. Just email me at dbustamante@us.ci.org