08/24/2026
Bringing it Home
For Sunday August 23
By Allison de Kanel
Today we heard part of a letter from Saint Paul, who spread the Good News of Jesus across much of the Roman Empire.
In today's letter, Paul talks about the graces, or gifts, that God gives us. These gifts are wonderful! When we sing, or help someone, or tell a friend about God's love, we can do it because God helps us.
We don't receive these gifts so we can think how great we are at singing or whatever we do, or brag about it. God wants us to use them and share them.
You might think we should be humble and deny that we even have gifts or talents. But if someone gives you a useful gift, and you like it, you don't store it away and pretend it doesn't exist. You thank the giver and use the gift. God wants us to use his gifts. It would be rude to pretend we don't have them.
Now, we don't always know right away what gifts we have from God. Part of following Jesus is figuring out what gifts we have, and how we can use them for God and for each other. We can help each other recognize their gifts, and they help us recognize ours.
All of us together can do amazing things for God, much more than we can by ourselves. Saint Paul says we are like different parts of a body. The hands and the ears and the feet do different things. We need them all to do God's work.
Let's pray. Dear God, help me to recognize the gifts you have given me. Help me use them for your service in the world. Amen.
Today’s Bible lesson: Romans 12:1-8
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Illustration: The Church is the Body of Christ, ChristianClipArts.com