Day 30: Shaped for serving God

Day 30: Shaped for serving God

As we all know, each of us are uniquely designed and shaped to do certain things. Even before we are born, God has designed us so that we have a certain roles on earth to play. He coordinated everything exactly how He wanted you to serve Him. You are created for a specific ministry. Each of us is carefully made: a custom-designed masterpiece.

For You created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Psalm 139:13-14

Every single day of our lives are planned by God. This means nothing in your life is insignificant. God uses everything – your talents, abilities, gifts, personality, interests, and life experiences – to shape you to service and to his glory. Rick Warren created the acrostic S.H.A.P.E. to help us remember the “wonderfully complex”.
How God shapes you for your ministry:
1. Spiritual gifts
2. Heart
3. Abilities
4. Personality
5. Experience
SHAPE: Unwrapping your spiritual gifts

God gives every believer spiritual gifts to be used in ministry. Everyone has different gifts from God:

I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.
1 Corinthians 7:7

You will not have all of His gifts, because God wants us to love and depend on each other. God choose the gifts that He wants you to have; you cannot choose for yourself. And these gifts, as mentioned before, are not for the benefit of yours, but to others. We are commanded to discover and develop our spiritual gifts.

An unopened gift is worthless.
Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life

Besides this, we must not forget about the basic truths about these gifts, else the envy of others because the-gifts-that-they-have-but-I-don’t will rise. Remember always that we are serving the same Lord our God.


SHAPE: Listening to your heart

Your heart represents the source of all your motivations – what you love to do and what you care about most.
Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life

Your heart tells everything about you:

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.
Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life

Find your heartbeat – the care for some things and not for others. This is one of the clues to know where you should be serving. There is another word for heart, which is passion. There is always something that you are very passionate about and it catches your attention easily. For me, I guess my heartbeat lies at worship team; I really enjoy worshiping God through music. Maybe I should consider giving talks about a God who is truly real, all the time? Well, this is another heartbeat that I can think of. We’ll see about it, shall we?
Your this emotional heartbeat is also the key to understanding your shape of worship.

Don’t ignore your interests. Consider how they might be used for God’s glory.
Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life

I guess I need to find a time to settle down and think about this: my interests, my strong points, etc and start to use them for God’s glory. And of course, when we are serving, we serve God passionately, not dutifully. So listen to our inner promptings, which can point us to ministry of which God intends us to be. But sometimes we feel difficult to know if you are serving from your heart. But there are some characteristics of it:

1. Enthusiasm. You are still very motivated to do the thing you love to do, and no one has to motivate you, no one has to check you, no one has to challenge you, you need not rewards nor applause; you just love to serve God this way. When you don’t have this enthusiasm, you are easily discouraged.

2. Effectiveness. We know that passion drives perfection. You will do well because your heart is there.

The highest achievers in any field are those who do it because of passion, not duty or profit
Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life

Serve God in the way that expresses your heart. This is the better life for us. The life which God gave us. The heart that do things for God’s glory.





Vincent