The Purpose Driven Life, Chapter Thirty
Shaped For Serving God
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God formed every creature on this planet with a special area of expertise. Each has a particular role to play, based on the way they were shaped by God.
Before God created you, He decided what role He wanted you to play on earth. He planned exactly how He wanted you to serve Him, and then He shaped you for those tasks. You are the way you are because you were made for a specific ministry. God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve Him in a way that makes your ministry unique.
Not only did God shape you before your birth, He planned every day of your life to support His shaping process. This means that nothing that happens in your life is insignificant. God uses all of it to mold you for your ministry to others and shape you for your service to him.
God never wastes anything. He would not give you abilities, interests, talents, gifts, personality, and life experiences unless He intended to use them for His glory.
You are a combination of many different factors. To help you remember five of these factors, use the simple acrostic SHAPE. In this chapter and the next we will look at these five factors, and following that, explain how to discover and use your own SHAPE.
Whenever God gives us an assignment, he always equips us with what we need to accomplish it. This custom combination of capabilities is called your SHAPE:
Spiritual gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality
Experience
UNWRAPPING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS
God gives every believer spiritual gifts to be used in ministry. These are special God-empowered abilities for serving him that are given only to believers.
You can't earn your spiritual gifts or deserve them--that's why they are called gifts! They are an expression of God's grace to you. Neither do you get to choose which gifts you'd like to have; God determines that.
Because God loves variety and he wants us to be special, no single gift is given to everyone. Also, no individual receives all the gifts.If you had them all, you'd have no need of anyone else, and that would defeat one of God's purposes--to teach us to love and depend on each other.
Your spiritual gifts were not given for your own benefit but for the benefit of others, just as other people were given gifts for your benefit. God planned it this way so we would need each other. When we use our gifts together, we all benefit.
Sometimes spiritual gifts are overemphasized to the neglect of the other factors God uses to shape you for service. Your gifts reveal one key to discovering God's will for your ministry, but your spiritual gifts are not the total picture.
LISTENING TO YOUR HEART
The Bible uses the term heart to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections you have. Your heart represents the source of all your motivations--what you love to do and what you care about most. Your heart reveals the real you--what you truly are, not what others think you are or what circumstances force you to be. Your heart determines why you say the things you do, why you feel the way you do, and why you act the way you do.
God has given each of us a unique emotional "heartbeat" that races when we think about the subjects, activities, or circumstances that interest us. We instinctively care about some things and not about others. These are the clues to where you should be serving.
Another word for heart is passion. There are certain subjects you feel passionate about and others you couldn't care less about. Some experiences turn you on and capture your attention while others turn you off or bore you to tears. These reveal the nature of your heart.
When you were growing up, you may have discovered that you were intensely interested in some subjects that no one else in your family cared about. God had a purpose in giving you these inborn interests. Don't ignore your interests. Consider how they might be used for God's glory. There is a reason that you love to do these things.
God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to serve Him and others. Listening for inner promptings can point to the ministry God intends for you to have.
Before God created you, He decided what role He wanted you to play on earth. He planned exactly how He wanted you to serve Him, and then He shaped you for those tasks. You are the way you are because you were made for a specific ministry. God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve Him in a way that makes your ministry unique.
Not only did God shape you before your birth, He planned every day of your life to support His shaping process. This means that nothing that happens in your life is insignificant. God uses all of it to mold you for your ministry to others and shape you for your service to him.
God never wastes anything. He would not give you abilities, interests, talents, gifts, personality, and life experiences unless He intended to use them for His glory.
You are a combination of many different factors. To help you remember five of these factors, use the simple acrostic SHAPE. In this chapter and the next we will look at these five factors, and following that, explain how to discover and use your own SHAPE.
Whenever God gives us an assignment, he always equips us with what we need to accomplish it. This custom combination of capabilities is called your SHAPE:
Spiritual gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality
Experience
UNWRAPPING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS
God gives every believer spiritual gifts to be used in ministry. These are special God-empowered abilities for serving him that are given only to believers.
You can't earn your spiritual gifts or deserve them--that's why they are called gifts! They are an expression of God's grace to you. Neither do you get to choose which gifts you'd like to have; God determines that.
Because God loves variety and he wants us to be special, no single gift is given to everyone. Also, no individual receives all the gifts.If you had them all, you'd have no need of anyone else, and that would defeat one of God's purposes--to teach us to love and depend on each other.
Your spiritual gifts were not given for your own benefit but for the benefit of others, just as other people were given gifts for your benefit. God planned it this way so we would need each other. When we use our gifts together, we all benefit.
Sometimes spiritual gifts are overemphasized to the neglect of the other factors God uses to shape you for service. Your gifts reveal one key to discovering God's will for your ministry, but your spiritual gifts are not the total picture.
LISTENING TO YOUR HEART
The Bible uses the term heart to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections you have. Your heart represents the source of all your motivations--what you love to do and what you care about most. Your heart reveals the real you--what you truly are, not what others think you are or what circumstances force you to be. Your heart determines why you say the things you do, why you feel the way you do, and why you act the way you do.
God has given each of us a unique emotional "heartbeat" that races when we think about the subjects, activities, or circumstances that interest us. We instinctively care about some things and not about others. These are the clues to where you should be serving.
Another word for heart is passion. There are certain subjects you feel passionate about and others you couldn't care less about. Some experiences turn you on and capture your attention while others turn you off or bore you to tears. These reveal the nature of your heart.
When you were growing up, you may have discovered that you were intensely interested in some subjects that no one else in your family cared about. God had a purpose in giving you these inborn interests. Don't ignore your interests. Consider how they might be used for God's glory. There is a reason that you love to do these things.
God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to serve Him and others. Listening for inner promptings can point to the ministry God intends for you to have.