Do You Know Who God Created You to Be?

At 48 years old, I am finally starting to accept what I have always known deep down.  I am finally shedding the labels and thoughts others have poured into me for who they thought I should be.  I have had so much “good” advice in my life but little of it included the question ‘who did God create you to be?’

Genesis 1:27 tells us that we are made in God’s image.  Not his whole and complete image of course, but a part of his image, endowed with the gifts he wants each of us to have as individuals.  And yes, we are all made differently.  That is why the Bible refers to the church as the body, as having individual strengths that allow us to work together for a greater good.  My parents encouraged me to do what seemed right in their minds to have a long and prosperous career but I worked for 25 years doing something I had no interest in.  My teachers encouraged me to seek a degree plan and career path with jobs that were easy to find or lasted a long time.  Friends encouraged me to play it safe, doing the comfortable thing and I have found myself not enjoying what I was doing and looking for ways to do what I did enjoy.  

I can only wonder what I would have accomplished if I had been living and working in my gifts all these years.  How successful would I be?  More importantly, what could I have accomplished in the kingdom work if I had been living full and free, living with passion and sharing my joy?  Of course, I can’t turn back the hands of time at this point so I focus on today.  

Today I encourage people to know their gifts.  I have found mine through a combination of personality assessments and counseling.  Myers-Brigg and StrengthFinders are two assessments I found particularly revealing and exciting.  Ministers/Pastors also have ways of helping people find their spiritual gifts.  Then, there is the ultimate source of finding your gifts...go to God.  Exercise spiritual disciplines and spend time with God.  Time in prayer asking God for wisdom.  Time in silent prayer listening for the Spirit to speak to you (in whatever ways the Spirit communicates with you).  Time in the word.  Time in your personal relationships.  Time in giving.  The more I have spent time with God, the more He has opened my eyes and then supplemented His handiwork in me (Ephesians 2) with other sources of input and feedback.

I am a child of God, His handiwork made for His purpose, in His image.  I have gifts He has given me and passion that comes from those gifts.  He has given it to you also.  I pray I continue to realize my identity as a child of the King and that you do too.

Father, open our eyes to see you as you see, to hear what you want us to hear, to speak the words you lay on our tongue and to radiate the beauty of your son to those we encounter.

Grace and peace.

Jeff Jones

Decatur, Texas