Purpose Driven Life Day 31: Understanding Your Shape

Psalm 139:13
For You created my inmost being;
  You knit me together in my mother's womb. 

Only you can be you. 

SHAPE: Applying Your Abilities
1. All of our abilities come from God
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. 
Even abilities used to sin are God-given; they are just being misused/abused. Since my natural abilities are from God, they are just as important and as 'spiritual' as my spiritual gifts. Part of the church's responsibility is to identify and release our abilities for serving God. 

2. Every ability can be used for God's glory
1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 

Here's a few mentioned in the Bible:
Artistic, architecture, administering, baking, boat making, candy making, debating, designing, embalming, embroidering, engraving, farming, fishing, gardening, leading, managing, masonry, making music, making weapons, needle work, painting, planting, philosophizing, machinability, inventing, carpentry, sailing, selling, being a soldier, tailoring, teaching, writing literature and poetry. 

God has a place in His church where my abilities can shine and I can make a difference. God gives some people the ability to make a lot of money. If you have this business ability, you should use it for God's glory. How?
1. Realize your ability come from God and give Him the credit. 
2. Use your business to serve a need of others and to share your faith with unbelievers. 
3. Return at least a tithe of the profit to God as an act of worship. 
4. Make your goal to be a Kingdom builder rather than Wealth builder. 

Deuteronomy 8:18
But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today. 

3. What I am able to do, God wants me to do
You are the only person on earth who can use your abilities 

Hebrews 13:21
May God equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 

To discover God's will for your life, you should seriously examine what you are good at doing and what you're not good at. Whatever you'e good at, you should be doing for your church!

SHAPE: Using Your Personality
When God made me, He broke the mold. There never has been, and never will be, anybody exactly like me. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' temperament for ministry. We need all kinds of personalities to balance the church and give it flavor. My personality will affect how and where I use my spiritual gifts and abilities. 

Like unstained glass, our different personalities reflect God's light in many colors and patterns. Tis blesses the family of God with depth and variety bit also blesses us personally. It feels good to do what God made you to do. When you minister in a manner consistent with the personality God gave you, you experience fulfillment, satisfaction and fruitfulness. 

SHAPE: Employing Your Experience
I have been shaped by my experiences in life, most of which were beyond my control. God allowed them for His purpose of molding me. In determining my shape for serving God, I should examine at least 6 kinds I'd experiences from my past. 
1. Family experiences: What did I learn growing up?
2. Educational: What were my favorite subjects in school?
3. Vocational: What jobs have I been most effective in and enjoyed most?
4. Spiritual: What have been my most meaningful times with God?
5. Ministry: How have I served God in the past?
6. Painful: What problems, hurts, thorns and trials have I learned from?

God never wastes a hurt! In fact, my greatest ministry will most likely come out of my greatest hurt. God intentionally allow me to go through painful experiences to equip me for ministry to others. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 

If you really desire to be used by God, you must understand a powerful truth: The very experiences that you have resented/regretted most in life - the ones you've wanted to hide and forget - are the experiences God wants to use to help others. They are your ministry! For God to use my painful experiences, I must be willing to share them. I have to stop covering them up and I must honestly admit it my faults, failures and fears. People are always more encouraged when we share how God's grace helped us in weakness than when we brag about our strengths. 

Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. -Aldous Huxley-

Don't waste your pain. Ue it to help others. 

Points to ponder: Nobody else can be me. 

Verse to remember:  1 Peter 4:10
Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 

Question to consider:
What God-given ability or personal experiences can I offer to my church?