Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
December 16, 2022: SOAP #4761: 1Peter 1-5

SCRIPTURE:  1Peter (NIV) 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

OBSERVATION:  We all enjoy receiving gifts.  Someone thought of us enough to give us something we did not earn.  We are blest! 

But wait, there is something more.  There is another joy in receiving gifts.  It is that the gift can then be used to bless someone else.  It is “using the gift received to serve others.”  Often, the joy of using the gift to bless others is greater than the joy experienced in first receiving the gift.

APPLICATION: Oh, what joy I miss when I take God’s gifts selfishly.  God wants me to experience a greater joy beyond the joy of receiving.  He wants me to experience the joy of giving — so He gives me something I can give others.  He blesses me to make me a blessing.

Note:  My heart overflows with great appreciation when I see how God is working in Africa.  People who have received the SOAP ministry are giving from their finances to enable others to receive the SOAP ministry!  Even this weekend preparation is being made to install 15 computers and printers in Sierra Leonel, with about 90% of the money raised in Africa!  

PRAYER:   Lord, thank you for giving me gifts that I can use to bless others!  Indeed, I am doubly blest!  I am blest in receiving the SOAP thoughts from you, and I am blest in passing them on!   Obviously, this is YOUR ministry.  Thank you for letting me be a part.  Amen

Pastor Leon
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