Family Movie Devotionals: Nacho Libre

Nacho Libre is a very silly movie. But it actually has a very powerful and Christ-oriented message. It’s about a priest who really loves God, but doesn’t feel like he can serve Him in the right way. He tries hard to be a good servant of the Lord, but what he really wants to do is wrestle. In the end, he learns that he doesn’t have to choose between serving God and wrestling. He can wrestle for God, and God will give him the strength to do it.

It’s easy to feel the same way Nacho did at the beginning of the movie. We may want to be a good servant of the Lord but we don’t know how. Maybe we see people at church, online, or at school doing really cool things for God, and we wish we could do something like that. Maybe we are afraid we’re not good enough to serve God. Maybe we think we aren’t talented or special enough to actually help anyone.

But there is a passage of scripture that might help all of us who feel like this. 1st Corinthians 12:4-6 says, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.”

We all have been given gifts by God that we can use to serve Him. Some of us were given the ability to teach the Bible, like our pastors and Sunday school teachers. Some of us were given the ability to sing and make music, like the people on the worship team. Some of us are naturally good at listening to people and seeing how we can help. There are so many more ways we can serve God, and none of them are better or more important than any other way.

The church needs all different kinds of people. And God has uniquely gifted you to serve Him, even if it’s different than what you normally think serving God looks like. Our natural gifts and interests can help us decide how we want to serve God and His people.

I want to make it very clear that we are not to serve only with our talents. There are a lot of people who are very talented at something but don’t love people well. We can use our talents for our own gain and not for the good of the church. We can have the talent and giftedness in the world, but without love and humility we are not helping anyone.

When we use the gifts and interests God has given us, and we love God and His people more than ourselves, we can serve God by doing just about anything! Nacho Libre served by wrestling and donating his money to the orphans. How will you serve God?

Answer the questions below:

• What are you good at?
• How can you use what you’re good at to serve God?