Why is it I feel like I am unworthy of what God has blessed others with (non-materials) but spiritual gifts?
I’m going to begin by making a clear and emphatic statement to answer your question: EVERYONE is UNWORTHY of ANYTHING God has blessed them with! EVERYTHING we have, whether it is a spiritual gift, a natural talent, a good mind with a high IQ, material possessions, etc.; everything is “a GIFT FROM GOD that we don’t deserve.”
Let’s start with the greatest gift one can have, the GIFT OF SALVATION. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Here we learn that everyone born into this world is a sinner and because we sin, we DESERVE DEATH (physical death…Romans 5:12; spiritual death…Ephesians 2:1… and eternal death…Revelation 20:11-15; 21:8). Yet by God’s amazing GRACE (i.e., Unmerited Favor), He offers the sinner the gift of ETERNAL LIFE through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ was willing to take the sinner’s place in DEATH and JUDGMENT on the cross (1st Peter 3:18; 2nd Corinthians 5:21), the sinner who believes on Christ HAS ETERNAL LIFE (John 3:16; 5:24; 1st John 5:13).
Once a person is saved and possesses the gift of eternal life, they realize that every blessing from God is UNDESERVED; in other words, we are UNWORTHY, yet God chooses to bless us by His amazing GRACE. Listen to the Apostle Paul as he expresses this truth to the saints at Corinth, “For I am the least of the apostles, WHO AM NOT WORTHY to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But BY THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but THE GRACE OF GOD WHICH WAS WITH ME.” Paul truly entered into the truth that HE WAS NOT WORTHY, but he also entered into the truth that all that he was, even the ability he had to labor for God, was due to THE GRACE OF GOD. Remember, GRACE means, “unmerited favor,” which simply means “we don’t do anything to deserve it.”
We have another good example of this in King David, who was blessed richly by God in many ways. Yet he, like the Apostle Paul, knew that everything he was and had was a blessing from God that he didn’t deserve. In 2nd Samuel 7:22 we read, “Then King David went in and sat before the LORD; and he said, ‘Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house that You have brought me this far?’” In so many words David is echoing the words of Paul, for when he says “Who am I?” he then goes on to say that it was the Lord that had “brought him this far.” Like Paul he is expressing the truth, “I am what I am by the GRACE OF GOD.” I would encourage you to read the rest of that chapter (verses 19-29) where David praises the Lord for His multiple blessings to him and to Israel. Verse 29 is a fitting way to close his praise, “Now therefore, let it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You; for You, O Lord GOD, have spoken it, and WITH YOUR BLESSING LET THE HOUSE OF YOUR SERVANT BE BLESSED FOREVER.”
I will close with a word of exhortation. When we enter into the truth that everything we are and have is a blessing from the storehouse of God’s GRACE, how should we respond? Ah, we should respond as Paul and David did, with praise welling up from our hearts and spilling forth from our lips! And like these two faithful servants of God, we should “serve the Lord with all of our hearts, with the ability He gives to us.” Paul had said that he “labored more abundantly than they all”; we should too! Yet we will always be reminded that it was “not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” In serving him we will be very mindful of the fact that everything God has given us has been “entrusted to us to be used for His honor and glory, and for the blessing of others.” We are STEWARDS OF GOD and the more we realize God’s grace and the blessings that flow to us from His grace, the more faithful we will be as “stewards of God” (see Matthew 20:1-8; Luke 12:42; 1st Corinthians 4:1-2; 1st Peter 4:10). (475.5) (DO)