September 20th

The Promise of the Presence of the Power of the Holy Spirit

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body just as He pleased. 1 Corinthians 12:17-18

Do you ever look at the people around you and compare yourself to them? Do you hear those voices in your head, accusing you of all those things that seem and feel like such terrible shortcomings?

You do? Good, because God can set you free from that as you read this today.

Look back at the verses today and answer this question: Who gets to pick the part that you play? Who decides which gift you get?

Answer: God does. To His own pleasure and glory, He has placed you where He wants you to be planted, to bloom forth a great harvest of fruit for the glory of His name.

You've got to get to the point of saying, If it's good enough for God, it's good enough for me, instead of this continual comparing that goes, Why did he get that gift? Why didn't I get that gift?

Imagine that you're holding an orange seed in one of your hands and a grapefruit seed in the other. They don't look all that different from each other, do they? But even though they look similar, I don't think they're confused.

We all get confused about, Well, what is my gift and what is my purpose and who am I supposed to be? I don't think for even a single second that the orange seed looks at the grapefruit seed and says, Have you decided what you want to be when you grow up? I don't they're wasting any time. It isn't sort of like, Yeah, I haven't decided yet. I think I need to take some time off to go find myself.

No. Even though they look very similar on the outside, built into these seeds into their very DNA and heart and structure of who they are is exactly the purpose for which God has created them.

Church, this is to be our life and our dependency upon Him in just allowing him to have His way and being so grateful that He's chosen to love us. The gifts that He has given to you are the gifts in you that bring Him pleasure. But as we all, in these diverse gifts, unite ourselves in one calling, God is so pleased, and the Church is so strong.

Please don't counterfeit and copycat someone else through comparison. Be the original you that God created you to be.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You that You created me to be unique and special, and that me being me really is important! Now please help me to know who You created me to be and show me how to live to the fullest of who I am!

Amen