Lesson 7. Tools and Tractors

Digging into the Word

We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith.

If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach.

If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement.

If it is giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy,

do it cheerfully. Romans 12, 6 through 8. When you go to the tool store to purchase tools for your

toolbox, you likely don't buy 20 hammers to fill up your box.

Hammers are an essential tool, but what are you going to do with 20 of them?

If you are planning to build something, you likely need nails, screws, a drill, a measuring

tape, and so forth.

In the same way, when you select a tool for a project, you don't just grab any

random tool out of your toolbox, but you select the tool that was designed to do the job you

need to accomplish. God has also designed us to each have specific gifts for various purposes.

Some of us have been designed to have the gift of teaching or leading, while others of us

might have been more suited to things like planning or designing. Whatever your gift is, God has

given it to you so that you can use it for his glory. He wants to use you, just like a tool out of a

toolbox, to do the specific jobs that are part of his great plan.

He gave different gifts to all of us because he has different plans for all of us,

and that is a very good thing. As you select tools for your homestead, think about the ways

that God might want to use you as a tool in his kingdom. What specific gifts has he given you? And how can you use

...