Are Our Lives Gifts from the Lord to Others?

 

2 Kings 13:1-25 (NKJV)
¹  In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years.
²  And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. He did not depart from them.
³  Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael, all their days.
⁴  So Jehoahaz pleaded with the LORD, and the LORD listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
⁵  Then the LORD gave Israel a deliverer, so that they escaped from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before.
⁶  Nevertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin, but walked in them; and the wooden image also remained in Samaria.

 

Note:  By this time the now separate nations of Judah and Israel had spotty careers serving the Lord.  Judah was mixed as far as worship of the God of Israel for people also burned incense to other "deities" in the shrines up on the hills.  Israel had been worshipping other gods for many years by this point.  Yet when the idolatrous king of Israel pleaded with the Lord, the Lord listened because He was sensitive to the troubles of the people.  So he sends a deliverer, an unnamed leader who helped Israel break free from Syria.  Then Israel returned to their idolatrous ways.  This has been happening for a long as humans have existed.  They sin.  The get in trouble.  They call on the Lord for help. He helps them.  As soon as the troubles cease, they go back to their old ways.

Verse five says that the Lord gave them a deliverer, as if the life of the person, whoever he was, was a gift to the people of Israel.  I find that an interesting concept, that the Lord gives people as gifts.  This is in the New Testament as well, in Ephesians (4:7-13), pastors and other leaders are given to the church by the Lord.  Is this true of every Christian, not just deliverers, etc?  What if we all thought of our lives as gifts to others, and our definition of success is the positive impact our life has on others?  Are other people enriched and have better lives because we are in it?  Does this change our priorities, if we view our lives as gifts from the Lord to other people?