What are you building?

God gave us gifts… Yahoo! But I wonder how many of us understand the value of the gift we hold and what we're meant to do with them. Have you ever been given a gift only to open it and say 'it's lovely erm... what is it?' I think many of us feel a little bit like this with gifts from God. We can be unsure of what is,how to use it or even why we'd need? But we do need what God gives us because He who has called you is equipping you. In Eph - 4:11-16 it tells us the gifts God has given each one of us are for the equipping and  growth of the body of believer’s here on earth that is the church folks!  There is no plan B we are it - we need to passionately invest and nurture the most precious thing to Jesus, each other.

Being productive is in our DNA, we’re designed by God to feel satisfied and happy when we’re producing something good. This begs the question then, what are we building with the talents and gifts God has placed inside each of us - what is the fruit of all this reproductive spiritual gene pool? Look at the picture above it's beautiful isn't it? Guy's when you pass me a stone of graciousness I can put it on top of the stone of forgiveness that someone else placed on the stone of a hug, which was placed beside the stone of speaking truth in love that took risk, which went underneath the sacrifice of praise, which was set above a stone of discernment… Do you see what I mean?

There’s a kind of principle with spiritual gifts they won’t grow if they’re not used. God tells us in Matthew 25:14-30 He has an expectation of us to use our gifts to build other’s up. For example, I can sing but if I never lead worship folks would miss out on blessing. The thing is I believe most of us really do want to be a blessing only we’re often not too sure of the practicalities. So what has God placed in you to build with?

• ·         What energises you? Brings you joy and satisfaction?
• ·         What do others say you’re good at?
• ·         What do you dream of?

These questions should help you to have a clearer picture of your gifting. If not do whatever serves and blesses others. It may be God is wanting to develop your character (and He does that through developing your service to others) often, it’s in serving others that you identify you’re gift. 

What will you build with your gifts, your actions and words, this week?

Hugs Ruth x

Listening isn't Hearing!

There’s a scene in Bruce Almighty, where he can hear the sound of the voices of all the prayers being prayed at any one moment all around the world and it’s deafening. So varied are the languages, so different the types of prayers, all mushed in together it’s like a buzz. Life can feel so bombarded with things vying for our attention it’s like we can’t hear or prioritise any one thing clearly. Most of us really do need and want to be able to hear the voice of the Father and without a doubt He has much to say, yet in an increasingly ‘buzzy’ world it can be hard.

Praise God He is not limited in any way and hears clearly each voice attending to it with His gracious truth and love, but for us hearing takes effort. Listening requires humility, it requires us to turn down the buzz of our own agenda and give our attention fully to what is being said. Not only that, it requires the patience not to interrupt, but to wait for a full account, to reflect, measure and weigh what’s been said. In some senses listening is the external bit and hearing is the act of taking in, making sense of what’s been communicated so we are different as a result. In Rom 12:2 it says 'we are to be transformed day by day by the renewing of our minds' but this process can only occur if we are open to hear.

Mathew 13:13-17, cautions us not to get so comfortable in the little box of our own world that our hearing is dulled. It elaborates, that there are those who want a one way relationship with God, so their ears are stopped up and their eyes are screwed shut! I have to confess there are times in my life when I blatantly knew I was doing wrong but clapped my hands over my lugholes and carried on in sin - only to come a cropper down the line and have to stand before the one who didn’t come to condemn me but bring me life and eat a slice of humble pie while He bathed the cuts and bruises of my own making.

Listening is a good thing it goes on to say in verses 16&17  ‘blessed are you lot who set your hearts to hear, other’s would give their eye teeth to be able to access what you can, it’s a treasure’! (my paraphrase) Guys we have what generations before didn’t have – a record of the actual words of Christ in the Bible, the Holy Spirit, other saints…

Let’s get hungry for hearing and be assured God has much to say!

• ·         Ask God to speak; He is a gentleman and will never yell…
• ·         Plan 10 mins today to simply sit in silence with God (I’ve found a lit candle helps me to focus)
• ·         Take a verse of scripture and ponder on it  / repeat it, write down on a note pad what comes to mind.

Happy hearing

Ruth x

God picked you!

Aelita/Dreamstock Photos

Ephesians  1:4 & 5 says, “Just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in LOVE. He destined us for adoption as His children through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will". 

HOLD THE PHONE…! Re-read that… Jesus chose me and you even before we were a twinkle in our father’s eye, before God stared spinning the plates in Heaven and exploding stars and making night and day He knew us and more over He loved us… Theologians call this predestination – I call it mind blowing!

We so often limit God to our thinking, our understanding of things don’t we? But God who is not constrained by time or anything actually calls us to think beyond the natural; beyond our experience, our rationale, beyond our cynicism. God knew you before He had formed you, body and soul the message put’s it like this …

Psalm 139 v 13 Message  “You shaped me first inside, then out;

You formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you,

High God- you’re breathtaking!

Body and soul, I am marvellously made!

I worship you in adoration –what a creation!

You know me inside and out,

You know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made bit by bit,

How I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;

All the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d seen one day”.

What’s more human beings like me and you were designed for the pleasure of God. Even in our brattiest moments the Father heart of God loves us with the completeness that is perfection. God is love it is His identity, His character… 

Beloved… know who you are today chosen, cherished child of the King, ask The Holy Spirit to help you receive the revelation of who you are in Him.

Hugs Ruth x