Verse of the Day for May 9

Peter starts with the least glamorous gift of all. Use hospitality one to another. Before prophets and preachers, he mentions the person who opens the door and puts the rice on.

And he adds two words that anyone who has hosted will recognise, without grudging. Hospitality offered with a sigh is still hospitality, but Peter wants something better for us than that.

Then he says every man hath received the gift. Every one. Nobody in the church gets to say they have nothing to give. The grace of God is manifold, a word with the sense of many coloured, so the gifts do not all look alike.

A steward does not own what he handles. He chooses, day by day, how to use what belongs to someone else. That is how purpose works here, one choice at a time. Serve, if you serve, with the ability which God giveth, not the ability you wish you had.

It might be one choice in the next hour. A neighbour knocks just as you sit down to eat. The steward's choice is small, and it is real.

Every choice to serve is a small act of stewardship.

Give with the strength God gives today, not the strength you had last year.