Since the apostle tells us here to “fan into flame” the gift of God that is within us, it means our gift may not yet be burning in a bright way. But, even if it is only in us as a little “spark,” it is there nonetheless; and as we have stressed in these Notes, and as Paul says above, it is our responsibility to cause that spark to grow into a burning flame.

While the gift here refers to the particular enablement God has given us for our service to Him, the same principle applies in relation to the divine life we received at the new birth. By that life we will eventually become the many sons of God, fully conformed to the image of the glorified Christ, who will be the Firstborn among His many brothers (Rom. 8:29-30); praise the Lord for that!

But as Peter tells us, that life came into us only as an “incorruptible seed” (1 Pet. 1:23). So, just like the gift, the seed of life is not fully grown when we first receive it; rather, it must develop and mature within us if it is to accomplish its work of conformation and glorification.

But, whether in regard to the life or to the gift, we must not “despise the day of small things,” as the prophet warns us in the Old Testament (Zech. 4:10). Instead, we should be “faithful in the least” (Luke 16:10) and exercise ourselves to grow, so the Lord can bring us into deeper, richer, and higher experiences of both His life and His gift. In this way we will, by our growth in life and through the development of our gift, truly become a blessing to all of our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ.

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—  10 January 2026 —