Everything

Paul starts his first letter to the church at Corinth by thanking God for, well, everything. That's pretty much what he says God has given to the Corinthians (1:4-9) "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Look at it: in every way . . . In all speech and all knowledge . . .not lacking in any spiritual gift. When it comes to obedience there's not much left out.

That's because God never calls us to something He doesn't also equip us for, and he calls us every day, individual and church, to obey. When Paul says "not lacking in any spiritual gift," he doesn't mean every single Corinthian had them all, but God gave each one to at least one person, so that the church had every one.

The challenge for us, then, is that if our church is to have the same advantage, then we'd better pony up our own gifts. They weren't given to us for our benefit, but for the benefit of others. Keeping them to ourselves isn't an option.

God provides us every day with everything we need to live obediently to Him. Sometimes his provision is to us, sometimes it's to the church. And sometimes we're God's provision to someone else.