Today’s Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:6, NLT- “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.”
In 2 Timothy 1:1 Paul introduces himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.” (ESV) What do you think the will of God is according to the promise of your life that is in Christ Jesus?
Psalm 139:13 tells us “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.” (NKJV) In the next verse, David praised God because he said, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” (NKJV)
Early in my affirmations of God journey I scheduled a coaching session with Dan Miller because I had read his book “48 Days to the Work you love.” I had read his book and loved his concept of making your passions your vocation. Dan suggested that I start a blog when I did not know what a blog was. Dan passed away January 21,2024 exactly 48 days after MRI scan results of advanced pancreatic cancer.
I recall a couple of questions that Dan asked. If money were not important, what would you spend your time doing? And “What are you doing when time just seems to fly by?” In his fourth version of 48 Days to the work you love, Dan shares another way we can recognize our “Genius Zone” from a book by Gay Hendricks entitled “The Big Leap.”
God has most certainly created us for more than most of us live. Fearfully and wonderfully God has made us unique and genius. Dan points out that 85 percent of recognizing your direction in life is to “look inward.” Let us look to the inward parts that our God formed in us. This is where we recognize our gifts from God. We must not look at the world or anyone else to know our gifts.
In Timothy 2 1:6 Paul was reminding Timothy and us to stir up the gifts of God in us. When we keep looking to God and His Spirit within us, we experience the truth of 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (NKJV)
Sometimes we need reminding and sometimes we are reminders. God has saved us and called us for His own purpose. God does not make mistakes. Interestingly, Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:9 that God had given us grace in Jesus Christ before the world began. Jesus was always God’s plan. You and I are also God’s plan.
2 Timothy 1:14 tells us to “Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” (BSB) You and I have a treasure inside of us and we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us share what has been entrusted to us for this world.
I love the words of Dave Ramsey; a dear friend of Dan’s who came to know each other after both has experienced massive “failures” in their lives, as he wrote the forward for Dan’s book; “The gleaming mountain of success is actually a pile of trash—a pile of the mistakes we have made. The difference between the successful and the troubled is not error-free living; it is that by discovering and implementing a life calling, the successful stand on their pile of trash while the troubled sit under theirs.”
We can trust and stand on the “mistakes” we have made. Let me remind you that when God’s light shone into your darkest places, this is the light you must share with this world. I am praying for the light of our flames to burn brightly.
Today’s Prayer: Father God, thank You for those who remind us to stir up the gifts You have woven into us. I am praying that we remind and encourage others. Thank You LORD for those whose faith helped develop our faiths. Please use the gifts You have developed in us to help fan the flames of faith in others. We are praying together now and asking Your Holy Spirit to help us share Your gifts, the wonderful treasures inside of each of us. Amen.
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