Yesterday I heard a man proclaim, “It’s about pride! It’s about me!” At once, my soul shrunk back in protest. He was referring to using his strengths in a challenge and it’s not that I haven’t felt the same at one time or another. It’s just that now I know something greater and true: It’s not about me and it’s not about having pride in myself. That is a road that leads nowhere.
God has fashioned me with wonderful capabilities. It is exciting and exhilarating to discover and employ them. And He wants me to! But I am not the creator of them, only the curator of them. I am to find my God-given gifts, care for them, use them, and manage them to display God’s glory, not my own.
My life is not my own. I am eternally joined to Him who made me, who makes my way. His gifts aren’t stagnant, it’s not a bag of 5 things and I am set off alone to use them. No, He makes the way for His children to use His gifts when they walk with Him, pray to Him, talk with Him, trust Him, learn His word. God comes alongside and shows me the way.
Never must I worry that He has left me helpless! I have His gifts to use, I have His Holy Spirit within to guide me and I have the promise that He will direct my steps.
Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps. Jeremiah 10:23
Meeting God at the Park 