Want to use your gifts?

When I moved back 14 years ago to the church I belong to, I used to get frustrated that the only jobs that came my way were things I felt completely ungifted in. Why didn’t God give me a role where I could use what I perceived to be my gifts? First it was teenagers. Teenagers terrify me! They seemed to speak an entirely different language to me (when they spoke at all) and made me feel like an alien in their midst. So what did God give me to do for the first seven or eight years? Teaching a teens Bible class, helping out with a church Youth Club then running a youth fellowship.  I would probably rate myself as nearly as unskilled at working with children. So what job did God give me to do next?  Sunday School teacher. Really, was God just having a laugh at my expense? Why didn’t he give me something to do that I was good at?

But now I no longer ask God to give me tasks that ‘use my gifts’ because I have realised that when I am doing things that I feel utterly unskilled at, I am most dependent on him. That dependency (we call it faith) is so much more important to the success of our labours for the Lord than how gifted we are as workers. Whilst doing something I feel I am good at, there is a grave danger that I start to do it in my own strength – and even worse, that pride creeps in. For example, when I was wondering how on earth to get through to a bunch of bored teenage boys who didn’t seem to want to do much more than grunt at me, I was praying all the way. Over many years, I learnt to love them and learnt a lot about the Lord in the process.  And now, when my Sunday School talk seems pitched all wrong and the children are badly behaved and uninterested, I am so conscious of the need for God to help me and to work in the children’s hearts. But when I am talking to a group of adults who listen to my every word and tell me afterwards how well I have done, I start to rely on myself and pride springs up in a second.

Don’t misunderstand me, I know God uses both the practical and spiritual gifts of his people to extend his kingdom. But we have to be so careful to ensure that, when we exercise our gifts, we have not stopped labouring in God’s strength or have allowed pride to creep in, because both these things will destroy our work and undo our successes. We need to constantly remember Paul’s exhortation to ‘take a sober judgment of ourselves’. When we look at ourselves through God’s eyes, our little gifts seem so puny in comparison to his power and glory. How ridiculous our pride is! This battle to remain dependent on the Lord is a constant, daily one that is won on our knees in prayer before ever we set foot out of our doors. And we need to pray for each other too, especially those in front-line ministries who are the Devil’s prime targets.