Finding Our Gifts Through Obedience {DWITW 365}
Talents. Gifts. Skills. We all have them: things we excel at, things we can do well, things that bring us joy and confidence - even our finances can be tied to our capacity to conquer tasks and responsibilities within our workplaces.
There is something profound about the process of uncovering our God-given gifts. As children we have the uncanny ability to believe we can do, be, or achieve anything. We dream of being astronauts, doctors, and ballerinas. As we grow, we begin to take on dreams more rooted within our nature. For instance, I am afraid of heights, so being an astronaut was never a desire for me. I knew being jettisoned out into space would not be a career path I ever chose. This was confirmed many times over by the terror I felt as a child at the top of a swing set or climbing a tree. However, in the first grade, I wrote a “book” about a worm crawling around until he found an apple to inhabit. I’m sure this story was created out of my fascination with Richard Scarry's Busytown books. I can still remember the two being on the book covers and the joy of finding it hidden on many pages. Even back at that young, unbroken age, I recall wanting to spend my time putting words to work in my life.
Fast forward to adulthood, I’m not a professional author. I work in an office plugging away at a keyboard all day. But when I found myself at a new church five years ago, broken and alone, I felt the drive towards writing begin to propel me forward almost like it was carrying me. Yet, I had no idea how to release this fire inside. This burning inside continued until someone suggested I began blogging my journey with God to overcome some past wounds. As I began to type, awkwardly sharing my raw and vulnerable moments, I also began opening myself up to God’s plan for my words. I saw myself heal. He created additional opportunities for me to write -- devotionals for a 21-day fast my church held, and a testimony that was shared during a group healing session which was then included in a book written by my therapist. Had I closed myself off to the possibilities of writing or ignored that dream, my story may have never been able to help other women heal from traumas they had endured.
God had filled Bezalel with this gift of design because He had a particular purpose in mind for him
In Exodus 36-38, we find construction being done for the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. But Moses isn’t actually the one doing the building. Moses is using his God-given skill set as a leader to develop this most important of projects (Ex. 39:42-43). We read how Moses has to listen intently to God’s instructions for guidance to get all the right materials. Moses has the laborers for the actual building - laborers with their own skill sets to help create everything the Lord had instructed be made. We know from the previous chapter that God chose artisan Bezalel. Why? Because the Word says the Lord gifted Him with the skill of artistic design. God had filled Bezalel with this gift because He had a particular purpose in mind for him - a highly important purpose - to build the tabernacle where God would come to meet with His people. We also know God assigned Oholiab to assist Moses due to his gifts in weaving and embroidery. Moses had to listen and obey God in the choosing of his laborers. If he had decided instead to go rogue the entire project would have been a disaster. The tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant might still have been built, but the specifications God had set out before them may not have been met. The intimate relationship developed through obedience to God’s direction would have certainly been lost on Moses and the Israelites if they would have chosen another path.
Another element to point out from this stretch of time is that the tabernacle was being built before the Israelites had even come to the Promised Land of Canaan. They were still nomads traveling and grumbling through the desert to reach the land God had promised to them. So, like them, even during times of drought or despair, when we feel less than worthy, God is able to bring us to a place of unveiling who we are in Him. Many times it is during our desert seasons that we are made aware, and then made able, to sift through the places of life’s hurts only then to find the joy and blessing of being in Christ.
In our dry times...God is able to fill us in unimaginable ways...ways that are better than we think or believe are possible.
Five years ago when I set foot into that new church, I had discovered my husband was cheating on me and that he wanted a divorce. Devastated and broken, I walked in looking for hope. I found that, and so much more. But this true hope has come at a price I had to be willing to pay -- my life. Now I will happily give up my “self” any day of the week to be at the feet of God. We must be willing to listen, to seek, to obey, to praise, to worship, to study, to share, to teach and to learn at His feet in order to uncover who we are meant to be in the glorious Kingdom of Heaven. We must be like Moses when God sent him to free the Israelites - despite how we feel about ourselves and our abilities - we proclaim the name of Yahweh, the I AM. Because in our dry times, those times when we feel life is kicking us when we are down, when we believe we are isolated and alone, or that our prayers are going into an abyss, in those moments, that is when God is able to fill us in unimaginable ways. He is able to fill us in ways that are better than we think or believe are possible. What a beautiful blessing it is to rest in the knowledge that regardless of how unworthy we believe ourselves to be, that God thinks we are still worthy to do His works for His glorious kingdom.
Sonya Gentry wants to live in a world where being kind and loving means that when we encounter a need or brokenness, we say yes first and think about it second. This would be a world where walking with Jesus means trying to act like Jesus through loving, relevant acts of service; where Christians put their hands and feet in the dirty situations of the world in order to show people God’s love and grace; where we understand that comfort zones are meant to be broken because people need us to show up and be be the best portrayal of God’s love we can be. When she's not working, you can find her being silly with friends and family, playing games with her nephews, volunteering for various organizations and events with her church, or relaxing with a movie.
Her favorite Scripture is John 15:16-17: “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you. This [is what] I command you: that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another” (AMP).