1) The document discusses discovering your God-given talents and abilities in order to serve Him effectively. It encourages making a list of your gifts, getting feedback, and experimenting with different types of service. 2) It emphasizes accepting your talents instead of comparing yourself to others, and enjoying the role God has shaped you for rather than feeling limited. 3) The document stresses the importance of continuously developing your talents over time so that your gifts may grow stronger through practice, experience, and using opportunities to improve.

1. Using what God gave you
Section 32
pages 249-255
Monday 15 November 2010

2. God deserves your best
Monday 15 November 2010

3. God shaped you for a purpose - and
he expects you to make the most of
what you have been given - focus on
the talents he has given you to use.
Serving God in ways you are not
made to do is like pressing a round
peg in a square hole -
uncomfortable at the best, wasting
time, energy and talents.
To serve God best - find out your
shape, accept it, enjoy it, develop it
to its fullest.
Monday 15 November 2010

4. Eph 5:17
Therefore do not be foolish, but
understand what the Lord’s will is.
Monday 15 November 2010

5. 1. Discover your shape
What are you good at - and what
aren’t you good at?
Rom 12:3
Make a list, ask people’s opinion -
make sure it is realistic not
flattery.
Where have you seen fruit in your
life that people confirmed?
a. Assess your gifts and abilities
Monday 15 November 2010

6. [Spiritual gift inventories can be
helpful but are also to be treated
with caution - no definitions in
the Bible, standardised for all
people, maturity makes you more
useful]
Experiment with different areas
of service - after you do it you
might think differently - try
things you haven’t done before,
start serving - if it goes badly call
this process and experiment not
a failure.
Monday 15 November 2010

7. Gal 6:4
Get feedback from people who
know you well.
Ask yourself: what do I enjoy most,
when do I feel alive, do I like routine
or variety, individual or team roles,
introverted or extrovert, thinking or
feeling?
b. Consider your heart and your
personality
Monday 15 November 2010

8. Review your life and how it has shaped you.
Dt 11:2 Remember today that your children were
not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline
of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty
hand, his outstretched arm;
Forgotten experiences are useless (use a journal to
help) - Gal 3:4 Have you experienced so much in
vain—if it really was in vain?
c. Examine your experiences and
extract the lessons you have learned
Monday 15 November 2010

9. Remember Jesus to Peter:
John 13:7 Jesus replied,
“You do not realize now
what I am doing, but later
you will understand.”
Only later did Peter
understand what was taking
place. Problems are often
best evaluated with this
hindsight
Monday 15 November 2010

10. 2. Accept and Enjoy your shape
God knows what is best for you - accept
and be grateful for the way he has made
you.
Rom 9:20-21But who are you, a
human being, to talk back to God?
“Shall what is formed say to the one
who formed it, ‘Why did you make me
like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have
the right to make out of the same lump
of clay some pottery for special
purposes and some for common use?
Monday 15 November 2010

11. Eph 4:7 But to each one of us
grace has been given as Christ
apportioned it.
Recognise your limitations - you
can’t do everything
Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the
sin that so easily entangles. And
let us run with perseverance the
race marked out for us
Monday 15 November 2010

12. Gal 6:4 Each one should test their own
actions. Then they can take pride in
themselves alone, without comparing
themselves to someone else,
Don’t compare yourself to others and
don’t conform to the pattern others expect
- they are deadly traps laid by satan.
Make a careful exploration of who you are
and the work you have been given, and
then sink yourself into that. Don't be
impressed with yourself. Don't compare
yourself with others.
Monday 15 November 2010

13. Pride is to be avoided - you might
find someone doing your ‘job’
better or worse than you - both
lead to a destroying of your
service and loss of joy
1 Cor 10: 12 We're not,
understand, putting ourselves in a
league with those who boast that
they're our superiors. We
wouldn't dare do that. But in all
this comparing and grading and
competing, they quite miss the
point.
Monday 15 November 2010

14. Other people will have their
opinion of what you should do
- it is best to avoid such
discussion and do what God
told you to.
“If my life is fruitless, it
doesn’t matter who
praises me, and if my life
is fruitful, it doesn’t
matter who criticises me”
John Bunyan
Monday 15 November 2010

15. 3. Keep developing your shape
The parable of the talents shows
Jesus expects us to keep
developing: gifts & abilities,
hearts aflame for God, character,
personality.
Php 1:9 And this is my prayer:
that your love may abound more
and more in knowledge and
depth of insight
Monday 15 November 2010

16. 2 Tim 1:6 For this reason I remind you
to fan into flame the gift of God, which
is in you through the laying on of my
hands.
Lack of use can result in the gift being
taken away - Matt 25:28 - “‘So take
the bag of gold from him and give it to
the one who has ten bags.
1 Tim 4:14 that special gift of ministry
you were given when the leaders of the
church laid hands on you and prayed—
keep that dusted off and in use.
Monday 15 November 2010

17. Every gift of God can be developed
through practice - good becomes
better, becomes a master in any
area.
Take advantage of the
opportunities God gives you to
improve.
2 Tim 2:15 Do your best to
present yourself to God as one
approved, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed and who
correctly handles the word of truth.
Monday 15 November 2010

18. Point to ponder
God deserves my best
Monday 15 November 2010

19. Verse to remember
2 Timothy 2:15
Monday 15 November 2010

20. Question to consider
How can I make the best use of what God
has given me?
Monday 15 November 2010