Encouragement

I get so many people who tell me they do not know how I do everything that I do. The short answer is I don't. God has given me opportunities to use the very gifts He has given me, and I have been blessed to serve Him in every way I can.

I was reminded of this during my MOPS retreat this weekend. In our curriculum planning for the new year, we were also given a leadership training, and I had the opportunity to view this on Saturday with the amazing women on my team. In short, God is pleased when we use the gifts He has given us in order to serve Him.

I think, as Christians, we are taught to be humble and not proud, and to be very honest I've struggled with that over the past several months as I completed my degree, and did so relatively easy and maintained good grades. Part of me wanted to be pleased with myself for my accomplishments, and part of me knew that I should be humble and not proud. What is the balance there? The answer came this weekend for me. God has given me the talents that I have, and He expects me to use them for His glory. Doing so pleases Him. It would be like me giving you a gift. Do I give it to you so that you can hide it in a closet? Absolutely not. I would want you to be blessed by it, to display it and care for it. The same goes with the gifts God gives us. Those natural talents, abilities and skills, passions and desires are all His gifts to us. We can choose to put them to good use, for His glory, or we can hide them in a closet, ashamed of our natural, God given abilities.

I have recently began to mentor a young lady in our church who desires to sing. She has the God-given talent, but is afraid. In a recent discussion with her, we discussed her fears, and I shared with her the idea that God would want her to share her gift with those around her, and not to let Satan, whom would NOT want her to sing for the glory of her Savior, use her fears for his purposes. Satan would love to see us all hide our gifts in the closet, to protect them from the world, and not use them... ever. He will use whatever tactic works... fear, anger, anxiety, jealousy, pride, etc. And he always does what's easy. He knows what works for you, and for me, and he'll use it every time. For this young lady, it's fear. For me, it was the fear of becoming too prideful.

So, I will be proud of my accomplishments. I work hard for the things that I do, and as long as I realize, and share, that it is not my accomplishments, but rather it is done through an amazing Father, one who loves me despite my fears and failures. He is the King of kings, the Lord of All and I choose to serve Him for all of my days. I pray that you know this Father. The loving, gracious, merciful Father, who sent his Son to die on a cross, a most unfitting death for the King of kings, in order to provide a way for us to spend eternity with the Father in Heaven. If you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please contact me, or a member of any bible-based church, and we'd love to speak and pray with you.

May you be encouraged to use your gifts that He has given you, in order to glorify God, our Heavenly Father who loves us above all else.

Heidi