Insights are short, biblical truths to equip you to lead from your strengths.
The two other articles in this series have addressed how you can learn to value others’ strengths with your head and your heart. This one looks at how you can make that decision with your hands.
The Law of Differences holds that there are just two paths you can take as you observe others’ differences.
- You can judge another’s individual differences (you see another’s differences as weaknesses)
- You can value another’s individual differences (you see another’s differences as strengths that God gave them)
In every relationship, you have a choice between these two options. Your decision will dictate whether the relationship “lives” or “dies.”
Here’s An Insight
The decision with your “head” centers on renewing the thought life in your mind. The choice to live with a changed “heart” requires giving God access to your inner life, emotions, and will.
But the decision is a bit different for your “hands.” In scripture, hands are the symbol of action. We use our hands to complete tasks set before us … to “get it done.”
Yet does a “Just Do It” approach to strengths automatically mean you are using yours in a way God can bless?
It is no secret that God yearns for His people to work hard using the strengths He has given them. “Whatever your hand finds to do,” says Solomon in Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Do it with your might” (ESV). Working requires toil and exertion, whether it is digging ditches or typing a document or counseling a teenager.
Yet when it comes to serving God with your strengths, using your hands means more than “Just Do It.” Mere effort is just the first part of the story.
Choosing How to Use Your Hands
“He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-2, ESV). Your unique roles, skills and strengths are given to you by God for two specific purposes:
- to help other believers (“equip the saints”)
- to build His church (“build up the body of Christ”).
Do you choose to use your strengths for reasons apart from these two clear purposes – maybe to gain personal benefit, satisfy pride, assuage guilt, cover shame, or find approval?
Or consider the strengths of those around you. Perhaps God has uniquely gifted them with specific ability to help equip you and build you up … to empower you and advance the Kingdom, through you, on His behalf.
By all means, work hard with the strengths God has given you. But don’t “just do it.”
Do it with purpose. God’s.
More Insights
Renewing Your Mind Means Choosing With Your Head
Changing Your Heart Means Giving God Access
Do You Know Your Strengths … or Are You Simply a Know-It-All?