God deserves your best.
What you are is God’s gift to you; what you do with yourself is your gift to God – Danish Proverb
The best use of your life is to serve God out of your unique shape; discover your shape, learn to accept and enjoy it, and then develop it to its fullest potential.
DISCOVER YOUR SHAPE
+ BEGIN by assessing your gifts and abilities.
Take a long, honest look at what you’re good at and what you aren’t good at.
Make a list. Ask other people for their candid opinion.
Be wary of serving or teaching or giving generously out of maturity rather than because it is your spiritual gift.
The best way to discover your gifts and abilities is to experiment with different areas of service – by experimenting with different ministries you will uncover your true gifts.
You have dozens of hidden abilities and gifts. No matter how old you are, never stop experimenting. You will never know what you’re good at until you try it out.
+ CONSIDER your heart and your personality.
Again, it helps to get feedback from those who know you best. (Doing this discovery into ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ was prompted by someone who knows me well {didn’t fully realise it at the time} challenging the mettle of my spiritual commitment)
+ EXAMINE your experiences and extract the lessons you have learned.
Review your life and think about how it has shaped you – forgotten experiences are worthless; and a good reason for keeping a spiritual journal. (I store a lot of my personal life and reflections online; in blogs, emails and enotes {even ‘facebook’ and ‘twitter’ posts} – great for remote portable access via my mobile phone – a writing journal is also always at my bedside for later edification and transcription to IT media)
We rarely see God’s good purpose in pain or failure or embarrassment while it is happening – only in hindsight do we understand how God intended a problem for good.
ACCEPT AND ENJOY YOUR SHAPE
God knows what’s best for you – gratefully accept the way He has fashioned and wired you. Your shape was sovereignly determined by God for His purpose – celebrate the shape God has given only to you – recognizing your limitations.
Nobody is good at everything, and no one is called to be everything. God wants you to enjoy the shape He has given you. Don’t overextend your ministry; your goal is to stay within the boundaries of God’s plan for you.
Satan will try to steal the joy of service from you; by tempting you to compare your ministry with others and by tempting you to conform your ministry to the expectations of others – avoid comparisons, resist exaggeration, and seek only God’s commendation.
‘If my life is fruitless it doesn’t matter who praises me; and if my life is fruitful it doesn’t matter who criticizes me.’ – John Bunyan
KEEP DEVELOPING YOUR SHAPE
Cultivate your gifts and abilities, keep your heart aflame, grow your character and personality and broaden your experiences – in so doing you will be increasingly more effective in your service. (So much easier said than done – keep persevering to your life’s end, I guess)
Whatever gifts you have been given can be enlarged and developed through practice. Don’t settle for a half-developed gift, stretch yourself and learn all you can.
In Heaven we are going to serve God forever; so prepare you for that eternal service by practicing on earth; thereby readying yourself for eternal responsibilities and rewards.
Let’s do this together... I love you ~ SB
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