Each one of us has been greatly blessed by our heavenly Father. He created each one of us to complete a part of his plan and provides us with the grace to accomplish this. As we make use of this grace to further the Kingdom here on earth, God is pleased and lavishes more grace upon us. Sometimes our gifts are easily identified and we find ways to use them to glorify God. Some people have beautiful voices and they become part of the church choir or produce music that builds up the Body of Christ instead of music full of sexual innuendos, violence or vulgar language. Sometimes our gifts may not be as easily identified or just maybe more subtle. We may not think of things like being a good listener or having patience as gifts but God uses all of these things. So often we just need someone to listen to what we have to say. With all the fancy ways we have to communicate now, you’d think it would be easy to find someone to listen but it isn’t, everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. Everyone has something to say but no one is listening. It truly is a gift when someone takes the time to really listen to what we are saying; it shows us that we are important to them.
Sometimes God prompts us to do things that we don’t feel we are capable of doing. When he calls us to do this we remind him that we aren’t good at that and there are so many others that are more qualified. Many of the prophets felt this way. Jeremiah told the Lord that he didn’t know how to speak and that he was too young. A few years ago I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to be an adult leader, one of the Core Team, for our High School Ministry. At first when I felt these promptings I tried to ignore them because I am an introvert and was very much so at the time. Other Core Members that I knew were younger than me, most of them in college and were very outgoing. I wasn’t either one of these. I was in my mid-forties and very shy and would become almost withdrawn in crowds. Our High School Ministry has around 400 active teens so our weekly gatherings are controlled chaos. But I continued to feel these promptings so I prayed to the Lord and told him that if this is what he really wanted me to do then he would need to provide me with the gifts to do this and he did. God always equips those that he calls. I was using my gifts to minister to the teens but God blessed me abundantly through this ministry. My faith deepened immensely and I learned many things from the teens and the other youth leaders. I learned to speak in front of others and to trust in the Lord.
“There is nothing that pleases God more than to enrich his creatures, and whenever he sees a man making good use of his gifts he pours more and more upon him with lavishness which is astounding... God is rich and there are inexhaustible treasures for bestowal, and he pours them forth ungrudgingly.”
~ Dom Anscar Vonier, O.S.B.
No comments:
Post a Comment