Day 30: Shaped for Serving God

Do you remember the song "Anything you can do, I can do better. . ."? If you're too young to know what I'm talking about, here is the Wiki article. Well, it's not true. I can't do everything you can do, and you can't do everything I can do. And I like it this way.

Just like our physical attributes make us each different, our Spiritual gifts are unique as well. The author talks about it using the acronym "SHAPE

S: Spiritual Gifts
H: Heart
A: Abilities
P: Personality
E: Experiences

We've already talked about Spiritual Gifts, they were given to help you in the ministry which God has made you for. Your heart gives you clues, because you were made to love doing the thing God has planed for you. Of course, some abilities can be learned, but the ability needed to serve God is within you, just waiting to come out. The last two kind of go together because one makes up the other. It doesn't matter which one you pick for that statement to be true. Your personality will help you connect with the people God has chosen for you to connect with, and your experiences help you relate.

I've said it a few times already, but I can be a bit rough around the edges, blunt, sarcastic etc. Have you read Ecclesiastes? King Solomon was very blunt and rough around the edges, I would say in a book about the Glory of God, Solomon definitely looked at it from a different angle. He could, he had tried all sorts of things and knew that nothing out shone God. If you haven't read it yet, move it up on your list. You can learn a lot more than just where the Byrds got their song lyrics from.

Everything that has happened to me over the past 37 years is my experience. And those experiences help me relate to certain people better than others. I have a few friends with very specific things that are happening in their lives right now that I can sit down with and say "I've been there, here's what God wants you to know." I don't say that to boast, I wish they didn't have these problems. I wish that no one had to experience the things that it took to finally get me to trust and love God. But if you're going through any one of them, I want to help you not loose faith, or fall without someone to help you back up.

I'm good at connecting to people who need to know the things I talked about yesterday. The people who think God doesn't love me, God can't use me, Why would God let this happen if He loved me, I can never be good enough for God, or I have to get my life together before I can come to Christ. If you're one of those people and you have never admitted those things to yourself or anyone else. Get in touch with me. We need to talk. It's why you've been following this blog for the past 30 days. It's how I was shaped to serve.

The Bible verse if from Paul again writing to the Corinthians. It should help you understand that Christians are all unique, but we all love and serve the same God

There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
1 Cor 12:6

The question to consider is this: In what way can I see myself passionately serving others and loving it? I can see myself doing more than just running the sound board at church, singing in the choir, or acting in the dramas. A month ago I would have never considered that I was meant to help others in a small group, but it's now in the works.

Remember: I was shaped for serving God.

and. . . God doesn't make junk