Exercise your gift

Find something you like to do and that you do well, then do it over and over. Something will happen, you will begin to succeed because you will be doing what you are gifted to do. And you will start to feel better about yourself because you won't be constantly failing. "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain." Psalm 127:1. Don't spend all your time trying to do something you are not good at. Instead, let God show you what you are good at. As a general rule, the things you are good at are the things you will enjoy. We can only do what God has gifted and anointed us to do. If we try to do otherwise, we will feel continually pressured. "A man can receive only what is given to him from heaven." John 3:27. As Christians, we must be content with the gifts that we have from heaven. We cannot go beyond the grace of God, we cannot receive a gift from Him just because we want one. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts according to His will for us, and we must be satisfied with what we receive from Him, There are times when God wants to give us a gift but the timing might not be quite right. We can grumble and complain, but until God decides it is time for us to be bestowed, we will not get it. We will get what God wants to give us when He is ready to give it to us. We will not get it until that point so we need to learn to be content with what we have and with a good attitude. God knows what He is doing; trust in Him. "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us" Romans 12:6. Don't waste time trying to figure out what your gift is. Just start doing what you are good at. "If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously" Romans
12:8. If you have been called to give aid by the Holy Spirit, then make it your business to give. If God has called you to be a giver, He will obviously provide you with the means to do that. There are many people in the Body of Christ who are called as servants, as helpers, as those whose job it is to assist a ministry. God calls strong leaders, people who He bestows a powerful anointing on for leadership. But even if they are gifted for the position, the leader can't do everything so God anoints other people to help them. No one can have successful ministry without those who have been called and anointed to help. If that is your anointing, do it with all your might and all your heart. Some helpers minimise their input, but they need to realise that they are in one of the greatest ministries in the Bible. There are more helpers than any other ministry of the Church. The helping ministry is wonderful and powerful. The Holy Spirit is in the Ministry of helping. He leads it. He is The helper! He is the One who walks alongside each believer waiting to help them in any way they need. Some people are insulted because they have been anointed into the ministry of helping. They deem it inferior to other ministries. But they do not realise that they are in the same ministry as the Holy Spirit. "If it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." Romans 12:8. There are certain things that we all take pleasure in as a result of our gifts from God. We may not think those things are important, but begin to do them and you will see differently. You can be a blessing to others no matter how simple your gifts may be. If you are a good baker, bake a cake for someone. If you have a gift for knitting, knit someone a scarf. Gifts of blessing and kindness like this will be looked on fondly by the recipient and never forgotten. Sometimes we doubt whether offering a gift is a good idea, thinking that it may not be received well. This is the devil trying to trick us out of a blessing. But being a blessing is the greatest thing you can ever do. Stop trying to work out your gift and begin to function in something you enjoy doing. It doesn't have to be some great spiritual act, or anything obviously spiritual. Some of the gifts that we don't think are spiritual are much more important to God than we think. "For this reason I remind you to fan into the flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands." 2
Timothy 1:6. Many times we search for some great spiritual experience, but the devil interrupts us to tell us we are not doing anything worthwhile. But, if we have touched somebody else's life, if we made someone else happy and made them smile, then we did do something worthwhile. That ability is a gift from God. The apostle Paul told Timothy to stir up gifts within him. We should all take this advice. Sometimes we get lazy with our gifts and we need to shake and stir them up every once in a while. If you want to overcome a sense of worthlessness and insecurity, stir up your gift. Use what God has put inside of you and get busy doing what you can do with what you have.