I saw post that got my attention today. The post was a picture that had
these simple words written on it:
Our Father is looking
for AVAILIABITILY.
Not
Ability
The post was followed with a scripture God gave me years ago. Isaiah 6:8
‘Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go
for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send Me!’
I was reminded of a devotion I read the other day. (The devotions are
both by Christine Caine.[1] I
recommend you check her out.) The capturing quote was: It’s so important to stay committed to growing in the gifts God has
given you.
The verse: Each of you should use
whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s
grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10).
It made me stop and think. Several
things occurred to me.
1. God was calling me to get and get with Him.
2. The words of Peter were – ‘use whatever gift you have received to serve
others’.
I think we as Christians misunderstand
the word ‘service’. I remember taking spiritual gifts tests and personality
tests earlier in my life, and I would feel guilty about the questions on
‘service’ so I would not answer them correctly.
I think we look at service as always standing behind others, serving food,
being hospitable and ‘standing in the background to help.’ We don’t realize
that serving others – according to the Bible- is using the spiritual gifts you
are equipped with as our means of service. Yes, there are many ways to help and
that is good, and there are times where we need to help, but some of us are
called to teach, to shepherd, to exhort, to administrate, to give, to help, to
mercy, to hospitality…. But how do we know unless we take a spiritual gifts
inventory. (I suggest going online and finding a great one like the one lifeway
has… or if you go to our church, take the place ministry class.)
All of this to say… Be who you are
called to be. I feel like waves of life hold us in place spinning our wheels to
keep the house up, the activities up, the crazy schedules up, the serving at
church up; but are you truly serving the ways He designed you to? How do you
know?
The key is spending time with God – in
His word, and talking to Hiim - It’s out of that relationship that the
abundance flows. He meets you with grace and understanding. He gives you peace
and ability to do what you need to do to complete your tasks.
But what if He happens to be calling
you to something specific? A specific way to serve that doesn’t involve running
around like a chicken with its head cut off? How will we hear His still small
voice if we aren’t being quiet with Him? How can He send you if you don’t take
the time to hear Him? And how can you serve the way He is calling you to, if
you don’t know what your gifts are?
The day you accepted Christ, you were
filled with the Holy Spirit. Just like you were born with natural talents and
abilities, you are ‘reborn’, as a Christian, with spiritual gifts. It’s
exciting to me to think that God would give each of us a ‘spiritual’ gift to
serve Him with – so go find out what yours is.
And… if you already know what your gift
is, are you ‘growing’ in that gift? We
are at an age where the spiritual temperature is turning up. Christ is coming
back, and there is a world out there that needs to know about Him. There are so
many distractions in this world to keep us off task, and keep the world from
hearing the message of Christ.
So what are you going to do about it?
The important thing? Be available. Talk
to Him daily. Get alone with Him and let Him speak to you. He will start
revealing things He has for you to do. There may be big things and there may be
daily things. You may need to go on a
mission trip, start a Bible study, speak to your neighbor – make a meal for
someone (or in my case- by a lasagna for someone)
He may call you to something so
exciting your socks fall off.
Just remember – you may not feel like
you are ‘equipped’ to do this new thing,,, He just wants you to say ‘ Here am I
, send me.’
