Sometimes God places a desire in our hearts to accomplish something for him, but he does not give us the ability. Nevertheless, he does not intend for us to deny our heart's passion due to our inability. When God gives us passion but not ability, he is creating an opportunity for one of several different outcomes.
First, it's necessary to examine our hearts. Perhaps our desire comes from something other than a God-created passion: maybe guilt or obligation or self-promotion. These smokescreens may be obscuring our true, God-given heart's passion.
Alternatively, we can recognize that our ability deficit gives gives us the opportunity to acquire a new skill. Our abilities are the one aspect of our SHAPE that we can readily change: just learn to do something new! God is powerful enough to enable old dogs to learn new tricks.
Finally, it may be that God intends to use your heart's passion to accomplish his plan, but not specifically in the "doing" of something. The Bible tells how the passion of King David's heart was to build God a temple, but David's other abilities as a warrior-king (a skill God used many times) rendered David unable to complete the building process.
King David rose to his feet and said: "Listen to me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, 'You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood'" (1 Chronicles 28:2-3). Rather than use David to build the temple himself, God used his military skill to create a period of peace and safety during which the temple could be built, God used David's visionary leadership to plan the construction project, and God used David's skill as a mentor to prepare his son, Solomon, to become the royal successor who would complete the temple project.
Here's a present-day example: T.W. Hunt was a seminary music professor who longed to become a full-time international missionary. Though Hunt prayed fervently for God to give him a missions assignment, God never allowed it. Instead, God enabled T.W. Hunt to use his skills to author a book about music missions, remaining at his seminary post to train a whole generation of Southern Baptist music missionaries. How would God get more "bang for his buck" out of T.W. Hunt's life, as a solo music missionary or as the trainer of a hundreds of missionaries? It is easy to surrender to God's sovereignty over our abilities when we recognize his perfect wisdom in managing our abilities.
One final thing -- God has given each of us the ability to worship him together, the ability to listen to his word and respond in obedience, and the ability to point others to him. We have the opportunity to do each of these tomorrow at FBC. I'll see you there! |
Today's Prayer:
Dear God, help me to recognize the desires that come from you, to courageously face the opportunities to learn something new relying on your power, and to trust your plan when my heart's passions seem to go unfulfilled. Help me use this day to serve you, preparing to join your church tomorrow to worship you together.
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Lee Barnett serves as FBC's Minister of Worship. He loves to see the participants of FBC's Worship Ministry working together to glorify God.
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