Day30: Shaped for Serving God

 Shaped for Serving God

Your hands shaped me and made me.

Job 10:8 (NIV)

The people I have shaped for myself 

will broadcast my praises.

Isaiah 43:21 (NJB)

You were shaped to serve God.

God formed every creature on this planet with a special area of

expertise. Some animals run, some hop, some swim, some

burrow, and some fly. Each has a particular role to play, based on

the way they were shaped by God. The same is true with humans.

Each of us was uniquely designed, or “shaped,” to do certain

things.

Before architects design any new building they first ask, “What

will be its purpose? How will it be used?” The intended function

always determines the form of the building. Before God created

you, he decided what role he wanted you to play on earth. He

planned exactly how he wanted you to serve him, and then he

shaped you for those tasks. You are the way you are because you

were made for a specific ministry. 

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The Bible says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ

Jesus to do good works.” 1 Our English word poem comes from the

Greek word translated “workmanship.” You are God’s

handcrafted work of art. You are not an assembly-line product,

mass produced without thought. You are a custom-designed,

one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece. 

God deliberately shaped and

formed you to serve him in a way

that makes your ministry unique.

He carefully mixed the DNA

cocktail that created you. David

praised God for this incredible personal attention to detail: “You

made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together

in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully

complex! Your workmanship is marvelous.” 2 As Ethel Waters said,

“God doesn’t make junk.” 

Not only did God shape you before your birth, he planned

every day of your life to support his shaping process. David

continues, “Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every

moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” 3 This means

that nothing that happens in your life is insignificant. God uses all

of it to mold you for your ministry to others and shape you for

your service to him.

God never wastes anything. He would not give you abilities,

interests, talents, gifts, personality, and life experiences unless

he intended to use them for his glory. By identifying and

understanding these factors you can discover God’s will for

your life.

The Bible says you are “wonderfully complex.” You are a

combination of many different factors. To help you remember

five of these factors, I have created a simple acrostic: SHAPE.

In this chapter and the next we will look at these five factors,

and following that, I will explain how to discover and use your

shape.

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God never wastes anything.

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How God Shapes You for Your Ministry

Whenever God gives us an assignment, he always equips us

with what we need to accomplish it. This custom combination of

capabilities is called your SHAPE:

Spiritual gifts

Heart

Abilities

Personality

Experience

SHAPE: Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts

God gives every believer spiritual gifts to be used in ministry.4

These are special God-empowered abilities for serving him that

are given only to believers. The Bible says, “Whoever does not have

the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God’s Spirit.” 5

You can’t earn your spiritual gifts or deserve them—that’s why

they are called gifts! They are an expression of God’s grace to you.

“Christ has generously divided out his gifts to us.” 6 Neither do you

get to choose which gifts you’d like to have; God determines that.

Paul explained, “It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes

these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.” 7

Because God loves variety and he wants us to be special, no

single gift is given to everyone.8 Also, no individual receives all

the gifts. If you had them all, you’d have no need of

anyone else, and that would defeat one of God’s

purposes—to teach us to love and depend on each

other.

Your spiritual gifts were not given for your own

benefit but for the benefit of others, just as other

people were given gifts for your benefit. The Bible

says, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the

entire church.” 9 God planned it this way so we would need each

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DAY THIRTY:

SHAPED

FOR

SERVING

GOD

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other. When we use our gifts together, we all benefit. If others

don’t use their gifts, you get cheated, and if you don’t use your

gifts, they get cheated. This is why we’re commanded to discover

and develop our spiritual gifts. Have you taken the time to

discover your spiritual gifts? An unopened gift is worthless.

Whenever we forget these basic truths about gifts, it always

causes trouble in the church. Two common problems are “gift-

envy” and “gift-projection.” The first occurs when we compare our

gifts with others’, feel dissatisfied

with what God gave us, and

become resentful or jealous of how

God uses others. The second

problem happens when we expect

everyone else to have our gifts, do

what we are called to do, and feel as

passionate about it as we do. The Bible says, “There are different

kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are

serving.” 10

Sometimes spiritual gifts are overemphasized to the neglect of

the other factors God uses to shape you for service. Your gifts

reveal one key to discovering God’s will for your ministry, but your

spiritual gifts are not the total picture. God has shaped you in four

other ways, too. 

SHAPE: Listening to Your Heart

The Bible uses the term heart to describe the bundle of desires,

hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections you have. Your

heart represents the source of all your motivations—what you

love to do and what you care about most. Even today we still use

the word in this way when we say, “I love you with all my heart.”

The Bible says, “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart

reflects the person.” 11 Your heart reveals the real you—what you

truly are, not what others think you are or what circumstances

force you to be. Your heart determines why you say the things

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An unopened gift 

is worthless.

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you do, why you feel the way you do, and why you act the way

you do.12

Physically, each of us has a unique heartbeat. Just as we each

have unique thumbprints, eye prints, and voice prints, our hearts

beat in slightly different patterns. It’s amazing that out of all the

billions of people who have ever lived, no one has had a heartbeat

exactly like yours.

In the same way, God has given each of us a unique emotional

“heartbeat” that races when we think about the subjects,

activities, or circumstances that interest us. We instinctively care

about some things and not about others. These are clues to where

you should be serving.

Another word for heart is passion. There are certain subjects

you feel passionate about and others you couldn’t care less about.

Some experiences turn you on and capture your attention while

others turn you off or bore you to tears. These reveal the nature

of your heart.

When you were growing up, you may have discovered that you

were intensely interested in some subjects that no one else in your

family cared about. Where did those interests come from? They

came from God. God had a purpose in giving you these

inborn interests. Your emotional heartbeat is the

second key to understanding your shape for service.

Don’t ignore your interests. Consider how they

might be used for God’s glory. There is a reason that

you love to do these things.

Repeatedly the Bible says to “serve the Lord with all your

heart.” 13 God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully.

People rarely excel at tasks they don’t enjoy doing or feel

passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to

serve him and others. Listening for inner promptings can point to

the ministry God intends for you to have.

How do you know when you are serving God from your heart?

The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. When you are doing what you

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love to do, no one has to motivate you or challenge you or check

up on you. You do it for the sheer enjoyment. You don’t need

rewards or applause or payment, because you love serving in this

way. The opposite is also true: When you don’t have a heart for

what you’re doing, you are easily discouraged. 

The second characteristic of serving God from your heart is

effectiveness. Whenever you do what God wired you to love to do,

you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. If you don’t care

about a task, it is unlikely that you

will excel at it. In contrast, the

highest achievers in any field are

those who do it because of passion,

not duty or profit.

We have all heard people say, “I

took a job I hate in order to make a

lot of money, so someday I can quit

and do what I love to do.” That’s a big mistake. Don’t waste your

life in a job that doesn’t express your heart. Remember, the

greatest things in life are not things. Meaning is far more

important than money. The richest man in the world once said,

“A simple life in the fear-of-God is better than a rich life with a ton

of headaches.” 14

Don’t settle for just achieving “the good life,” because the

good life is not good enough. Ultimately it doesn’t satisfy. You

can have a lot to live on and still have nothing to live for. Aim

instead for “the better life”—serving God in a way that expresses

your heart. Figure out what you love to do—what God gave you

a heart to do—and then do it for his glory.

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When you are doing what 

you love to do, no one 

has to motivate you.

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Day Thirty

Thinking about My Purpose

Point to Ponder: I was shaped for serving God.

Verse to Remember: “God works through different men

in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his

purposes through them all.” 

1 Corinthians 12:6 (Ph)

Question to Consider: In what way can I see myself

passionately serving others and loving it?

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