Daily Devotional for Monday, August 11

Seek the Gift of Prophecy

“Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy,” 1 Corinthians 14:1.

Perhaps you have heard of the marshmallow test. In this famous set of experiments, a young child was placed in a room at a desk with one plate containing one marshmallow. The child was told he could eat that marshmallow now or wait fifteen minutes and be given two marshmallows. He was then left alone to see what he would do. Almost seventy percent of the time, the child chose to eat the one marshmallow right away rather than waiting fifteen minutes for two. I think I know what I would have done at that age, and perhaps even now.

            Two choices, both good but one that is even better, can trip up all of us. In our wider passage, Paul speaks of the wise use of spiritual gifts within the church. He spends much time showing the proper purpose and use of the gifts. All of his reasoning leads to this idea: the gifts are for the edifying of the church as a whole. The gift of prophecy was the ultimate gift for this purpose. Other gifts, such as tongues, were not bad. They were a gift from God. Prophecy served a wider purpose. It was to be chosen and used over tongues.

            Although these gifts, and having to choose one gift over the other, are no longer an issue for us today, we constantly face choices between good, better and best regarding how our choices affect others. We can make a choice that is good but benefits others less or one that is better which helps more. The principle is the same: are we seeking to build up others within the body of Christ.

            You often have choices set in front of you in which none of your choices are bad but one can help more than just you. Choose wisely and with love.

REFLECTION

Allow love to guide you to choose better and best over simply good.

Jason Rutherford