Staff Writer – Carol Cato
1 Peter 4:10-15
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another....
A couple of Sundays ago my Pastor spoke about the gifts that God has given each one of us, unfortunately, most people are unaware of the spiritual gifts and talents that God has given them. Gifts and talents are usually associated with inventors, artistes or sports personalities etc. I believe the problem is that we focus on gifts and talents that have monetary value, where often our gift may be helping people or something similar. The gift we’re given is our passion, the things we love to do, perhaps the thing that you’ve thought about doing but don’t feel capable of.
The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts so that we can live our life to its fullest. 1 Corinthians 12:11 says He alone decides which gift each person should have. We should pray and ask Him to reveal our gifts to us. No matter how old you are, you can still find your passion, your gift and your purposes in life. How many times have you asked yourself, why am I here? What is my purpose? Well, now’s the time to find out. I’ll take you through some points we learnt at church about how to discover our gifts.
1. Everyone has potential, God expects you to be faithfully about what he has shown you, and he will give you more.
No matter who you are, you have the potential to be something great or do something great. You might not realise what that talent is, however, you may have a dream, large or small, God has given you a vision; even though, it may appear impossible to achieve. When God gave me my dream, I didn’t think it was going to turn into a business, I didn’t have the skills for what I wanted to do, however, God honoured my first move towards doing something about my dream, he sent me people who could turn my dream into reality. God is just waiting for you to make a move.
My faith blog is a good example, I have never written before, much less to the general public, but God gave me a dream to start a gospel page on Facebook; not long after, I received a message from the editor of CaribDirect.com asking me to write. My first reaction was no, I can’t do it, I am a new Christian, what do I know! However, I then realised that God gave me a gift and he wanted me to use it, there are many times when I can’t think of what to write, and then He sends me a message.
Photo courtesy asiansinglesolution.com
2. You can’t go far without being diligent – you have to keep going
Proverbs 22:29 talks about being diligent, the dictionary meaning of the word diligent is constant in effort, attentive and persistent in the pursuit of accomplishing something. When you find your gift, keep on top of it, don’t let it slip from you, be persistent, you might fail, but get back up and start again.
3. Failure stops a lot of people
Failure can be such a devastating experience for some people; they just give up and never try again. There are many famous people who failed several times, but never gave up.
Bill Gates – Gates didn’t seem like he’d be a success after dropping out of Harvard and failing at his first business called Traf-O-Data, with co-founder Paul Allen. While Gates’ early idea didn’t work, his later attempts did, creating the global empire that is Microsoft.
Harland David Sanders– Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, had his famous secret chicken recipe rejected 1,009 times before it was accepted by a restaurant.
4. Kill the demon of procrastination
Proverbs 13:4 says ‘Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper’. Many people start things but never finish – think of the business idea you had, and the first person you told probably gave you negative feedback, so you gave up or you had an idea but didn’t know how to go about starting it. If you simply sit on your dreams, you will need a good reason on judgment day to justify why you never used it. Everyone who has had a dream has received a negative comment at some point or the other, if you believe in your dream, start the process and pray that God opens doors and brings people who can help you move your dream to the next level.
5. Surround yourself with people who will encourage you.
Take a close look at the people who you hang out with, are they positive thinking people? If you’re among people who don’t have a good word to say or can’t lift you up when you’re down or drain your energy, maybe it’s time to separate yourself from them. A person, who isn’t going places, can’t give direction to anyone else. Spend your time with positive people who encourage you and pick you up when times are rough.
6. As a man thinks it in his heart so he is
Proverbs 23:7 says it best. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost]”.
7.Grace
Your spiritual gift, your passion, your purpose in life should not be about getting fame; it should be to glorify God. We excel in our gifts and talents by the grace of God, if you’re not aware of this grace, God can’t take you far.
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