What Does the Bible Say About Using Your Strengths?
In church culture, we have a tendency to say something like this:
We most experience God when we’re weak!
The idea goes back to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
When we realize that everything we have is from Him, God’s glory shines through. Amazing, right?
Yet I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that we only truly experience God when we’re weak.
Have you ever been in a moment where you’re just in the flow? You’re grooving along, doing your thing, and you look at the clock – “Hey, where did the time go?!”
It’s AWESOME.
Most likely, you were enjoying using your strengths (you know, those handy gifts God gave you). 😉
God designed you with unique strengths to live your life to the fullest and positively impact the world (i.e. live intentionally with passion and purpose as His beloved).
Whoa, right?!
If you’d like to know more about what the Bible says about using your strengths, keep reading!
- "I created you to reflect Me!" – God
- "Use the talents you've been given" – Jesus
- "You're created to do good works" – Paul
- "You don't have to be great at everything" – Paul
- Get help identifying your strengths with the free Embrace Your Potential Playbook
- Articles related to using your strengths
- Wrapping up what Scriptures say about using your strengths
Throughout Scripture, God makes it clear that we were designed to honor him, serve others and play our part of His glorious story.
“I created you to reflect Me!” – God
From Genesis – quite literally the beginning! – God shares about how He created man in His own image and likeness:
“Use the talents you’ve been given” – Jesus
During his ministry, Jesus shared a parable about three servants who had varying degrees of talents (Matthew 25:14-30).
By the way, in that culture, talents were actually sums of money – not how skilled you were with styling your tunic or your shepherding skills. But… the idea easily translates well to “talents” as we see it today – abilities to do something well!
Before the master of the household went on a big trip, he delegated different amounts of talents to three different servants to manage while he’s gone. When he comes back, he discovers that two of the servants invested his talents in other work and actually doubled the talents they’d been given. As a result, he celebrates with the servants and gives them more opportunities to lead in his household.
When the third servant comes to the master, he confesses that he feared what would happen if he did anything with that talent so he buried it in the ground. The master is upset and sends the servant away where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).
You can take this parable many ways, but for the sake of this post, let’s focus on one idea:
You are called to use your talents (i.e. your strengths and gifts) and not just bury it in the ground. Don’t let your fear of failure or mistakes stop you from using them.
You’ve been given the responsibility of using your strengths. Go do it!
“You’re created to do good works” – Paul
In the New Testament, Paul reminded the Ephesians about this idea:
Like the Ephesians, you also are His workmanship – created in Christ Jesus. You were created to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do.
What’s an obvious way to do good works? Using the good gifts God gave you!
“You don’t have to be great at everything” – Paul
We don’t have the capacity to be great at everything. But you can be great at what you CAN do!
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the body of the Christ:
We tend to hone certain strengths that we’re more drawn to – often what comes more naturally. That’s okay. We need each of us (parts of the body) to play different roles. Celebrate that!
Your job isn’t necessarily to be both an eye and a foot. It’s to be the person God designed you to be! (And enjoy that beautiful life He gave you!).
Get help identifying your strengths with the free Embrace Your Potential Playbook
If you’re looking for some help identifying your God-given strengths and how to be more intentional with your time and energy, grab the free Embrace Your Potential Playbook. In the playbook you’ll find:
- What God says about personality. After all, He came up with the idea, so His perspective matters.
- Personality descriptions to help you determine your type. Sometimes we don’t realize what’s unique about our experience until someone describes it to us.
- Type tips for living more intentionally – by leveraging your strengths and being sensitive to your weaknesses.
Articles related to using your strengths
- Discover Your Strengths with These Tools
- 4 Personality Tips to Help You Intentionally Use Your Strengths
- Think personality tests are useless? Try this instead.
Wrapping up what Scriptures say about using your strengths
Beloved, you are designed to make an impact that only YOU can make. Part of that impact comes from using the strengths God gave you.
As a quick recap, here’s what Scripture says about using your strengths:
- “I created you to reflect Me!” – God
- “Use the talents you’ve been given” – Jesus
- “You’re created to do good works” – Paul
- “You don’t have to be great at everything” – Paul
Remember these simple truths and go live out your strengths! When you intentionally use your strengths, you can live with more passion and purpose as God’s beloved.
P.S. Want some crazy simple steps to start living intentionally? Grab the Embrace Your Potential Playbook. It’ll help you zoom in on your God-gifted personality and give you practical tips to be more intentional, passionate, and purposeful as God’s beloved so you can become the best version of yourself.
I’m Cortney, a recovering over-achiever and God’s beloved who loves helping fellow Christian women like you embrace your God-given gifts so you have the confidence to live authentically.
I’m also a full-time mama to two sweet little boys, wife to my best friend, motivational speaker, and part-time Christian life coach. Chai lattes, strong coffee, podcasts, yoga, dance, and fairy tales nourish my soul and add sweetness to life.
Discovering the joy of embracing my God-given gifts and who He created me to be was a game-changer—a journey that brought freedom, unexpected delights, and relief from guilt. Finally, I felt free to be myself and ditch the pressure of being someone I wasn’t.
Incorporating those gifts into my day—from weekly planning to deciding on commitments, nurturing my marriage, and parenting—transformed everything. Now, I can’t imagine life without the perspective of fully embracing who God created me to be. I was missing so much without it!
Thank you for this. I am fairly assertive for a woman and have been getting a lot of criticism to step back lately. It’s nice to hear advice to be myself.
Yay! I’m so glad this could encourage you. We need you to be YOU and offer your strength!