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!
Throughout Scripture, God makes it clear that we were designed to honor him, serve others and play our part of His glorious story.
From Genesis – quite literally the beginning! – God shares about how He created man in His own image and likeness:
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!
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!
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!).
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:
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:
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.
Cortney is a Christian life coach and recovering over-achiever who is passionate about helping Christian women embrace who God created them to be so they can confidently step into any season of life with passion, purpose, and peace. She’s also an ENFJ, MBTI® coach, M. Ed in College Student Development, Pilates and Yoga teacher, wife, mama, and entrepreneur. In her pre-kid life, she coordinated programs for, coached, funded, and provided leadership training for more than 60+ student organizations and 100s of university students for 7+ years. (Helping people highlight their inner awesomeness and reach their goals is her jam!)
More importantly, she’s God’s beloved.
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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!