1 Corinthians 14:12-20 Share Your Gift
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: March 26, 2020 1 Corinthians 14:12-20
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
(Understanding the Text) Basically, Paul is telling them to use their heads instead of their overexcitement about their gift of tongues. They seem to have the thinking that since they could “magically” speak in a foreign language without study that there would then be some “magic” blessing in praying in the language of their gift rather than the language of the people they were worshipping with. Paul has been telling them that prayer is not about the sounds that come out someone’s mouth. Prayer is about the content of those words. He has been telling the Corinthians that worshipping together is not about showing off or about magically invoking God through their showy gift. Instead, worshipping together is about exchanging ideas and sharing praise for God together in a united way. He tells them the most important part of worshipping God together is building each other up rather than excluding each other.
(Revelation of God) Communal worship is not about our own personal worship of God. It is about worshipping in conjunction with our fellow believers. Paul is saying that if a person has a message that will only come out in a foreign language, the person giving the message needs to pray that he can receive the ability to switch back and forth between languages in order to interpret. Jesus prayed that His followers would be one, just as He and the Father were one. The Spirit is one with the Father and Son. That means that His goal in giving us gifts is also make us one as the Godhead is one. We must always strive for the kind of unity of love and purpose that is present in God. Any other use of the gifts that God has given us is an abuse and harmful to ourselves and others.
(Understanding the Text) Paul contrasts praying with one’s spirit to praying with one’s mind. I thought at first that praying with one’s spirit meant the prayers that we do individually in our minds, but that does not seem to contrast appropriately with praying with one’s mind. Maybe, it refers to emotions versus logic?
Paul points out that if others cannot understand what you say in prayer, you are not praying correctly for a public worship service. Others need to understand what you say in prayer so that they can be in agreement with you as the group prays. I think this can be applied to using flowery language in prayer also. We need to plan our public prayers in ways that create a united flow to God, whether it is a petition, gratitude, sorrow, or praise.
Paul spoke in tongues more than the Corinthians. Does this mean that he spoke more different languages than they did, or that he used his gift much more often than them. Maybe, both, or maybe something else. Paul’s point is that he used his gift from the Spirit with intelligence. He did not misuse the gifts that God gave him.
When we think like children, we don’t appreciate that we have our gifts for one purpose: to uplift God to each other. Instead, the gifts become toys to play around with and then leave lying on the floor to be stepped on. When we think maturely, we plan to use our gifts in the most effective way to show love to others.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to use my gift of teaching to uplift my fellow church members and not just to show off that I know more than they do. I need to have a mindset that puts their needs above my own ego. What do they need? Please help me to teach the lessons that You want me to teach and not just my own narrow thinking.