"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations"
~Jeremiah 1:5
Hey loves,
Before we get started, I would like for you to take a look at the video embedded below. This video is a major component of today's discussion:
Hopefully you watched the video, before reading on (if not, shame on you! lol!). In the video, Shaheen planned and practiced with one song in particular believing that it was his best. He decided to sing Amy Winehouse's song "Valerie" because everyone he knows loves the way that he sings the song. However, when he stepped on stage and began singing that song, he was quickly stopped by one of the judges, Simon Cowell. Now, if you have watched Simon in the past, you know that he is a stickler for perfection and can be quite annoying if you are a fan of the person that he is criticizing. This situation, however, was a little bit different from his typical criticism.
Simon recognized very early in the song, that Shaheen was not performing well. Shaheen was focused on singing a popular song, and providing a good stage presence (he started strutting back and forth on stage while singing). Although, the crowd (and the other two judges on the panel) enjoyed the very short performance, Simon was not pleased. He asked Shaheen to choose another song that he likes to sing. Shaheen chose to sing Michael Jackson's song "Who's loving you". What happened next was amazing! Shaheen blew everyone away with his wonderful voice. He was more confident and sang from his soul. After he belted the first couple of notes, Simon smiled (obviously very pleased) and the crowd went wild.
Now I want you to put yourself in the place of Shaheen. He came into the situation believing that he was only capable of performing at a certain level. He did not bring his best to the competition because he didn't know that he was not performing at his best. We are the same exact way. We think that we are only capable of performing at a certain level, when in fact the Lord sees much more potential in us. We are often reluctant to step outside of our comfort zone because we are afraid of failure. We are comfortable doing what we think we are good at, but often times we fail to discover the talents and potential that God sees in us.
God created each and every one of us. He knows the gifts that he has deposited in us and is saddened when we do not use them. Here are a couple of reasons why we do not use our gifts:
- We are afraid
- We are unaware that we have them
You may be asking this question: how do you learn about the gifts that God had given you? That's kind of a tough question to answer. Everyone for the most part has different gifts, but there is one gift that all believers in Christ have, the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you are struggling to learn more about what God has deposited in you, I encourage to seek guidance from the Spirit. Spend time with the Lord on a regular basis. Two to three hours a week on Sunday is not sufficient enough. You need to take time to GET AWAY and read the Word, and meditate on it (Jesus did it several times in scripture: Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35-36, Mark 6:45-46, Luke 4:42, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12, etc.). Talk to the Lord. Tell Him about your concerns. Have REAL conversations with Him. Don't focus on Christian cliches, or sounding eloquent in speech; talk to Him like you would a best friend. You don't have to change your way of speaking to talk to Him. Be real! If you are struggling with a concept or an idea, tell Him about it. If you are frustrated, let Him hear your frustration.
As you develop a stronger relationship with Christ, He will begin to reveal some things about your character, personality, skill set and faith. God is not only in the blessing business, He is also in the growing business. God wants us to grow in Him. As the growth continues, God will begin to provide you with divine constructive criticism. To learn more about Him and ourselves, we have to embrace that constructive criticism to get to the next level in our relationship with Him. If we embrace that criticism, we will be one step closer to discovering and developing our gifts.
Going back to the video, recall that while Shaheen was singing the song "Valerie" the crowd went wild. However, once he was stopped by Simon, the crowd was very upset. Likewise, when God begins to reveal to you the gifts that you have, there are going to be some people that will not like what He is doing in your life. Understand right now that the growth process will be difficult (I am currently in it right now-->
A New Direction: Now Entering the Spiritual Stretch Zone). There will be some that don't like the decision that you have made to grow closer with Christ. There will be some that will be mad that God has chosen you. However, once God is finished with you, He will be pleased and His name will be glorified through you. Both you and the world will be able to see the potential that God saw in you all along... You will switch from singing "Valerie" to "Who's loving you", just like Shaheen in the video.
Are you ready to embrace and learn about the gifts that God has deposited in you? What gifts do you think God has deposited in you? Please comment below.
I love y'all for free,
nNb :-)
