Insights are short, biblical truths to equip you to lead from your strengths.
Does God trust you?
Before you say “No way!” or “Of course!” consider how the question swings your thinking. You are used to trusting God — not the other way around. You place trust in Christ for forgiveness … trust God in your circumstances … trust the Holy Spirit to work in your character to allow you to become more like Jesus …
God has proven to be trustworthy. Yet He is also trusting. In fact, He trusts YOU. He has entrusted you with strengths and has marked you with them.
Here’s an Insight: You are God’s marked man (woman)
While He was dying, Jesus called upon the Apostle John in a special way by designating the apostle as Mary’s guardian.
Tradition tells us that the Apostle John’s circumstances were a bit better than the other disciples. He was an acquaintance of the high priest (John 18:15) and his father and mother, Zebedee and Salome, were still alive during the time of Jesus’ ministry. Zebedee employed hired servants (Mark 1:20), which indicates the family’s prosperity over poverty. Salome, one of Jesus’ followers, was present at the cross (Mark 15:40).
While John may have had the financial means to support Mary, he also was marked with the personality strengths to do so. As a Predictable, loyalty and consistency were among John’s strengths. Steady, reliable John could be trusted to support Mary, Jesus’ mother, in the aftermath of her son’s death – a time of upheaval – even while John grieved, too.
Clearly Jesus sought to provide the loving support of a family to his mother during her grief and later years. By calling John to the task of adopted son, Jesus expressed confidence that John would respond in the way God had wired him.
Are You Marked By Your Strengths?
John proved worthy of that trust. “From then on this disciple took her into his home” (John 19:27). Through the ages, the Apostle John has become synonymous with the character traits of faithfulness, stability, and reliability. He has become a “marked” man – one known by reputation.
God wired you with strengths – the unique traits you exhibit and the unique manner on which you carry out tasks. Your strengths reflect elements of His character.
When you focus on using your strengths, developing your strengths, and exercising your strengths, you become known as a person who can be counted upon to exhibit them.
Like John, you become a resource that is ready to respond with your strengths, even in challenging circumstances. Like John, you build a reputation. Like John, God gives you tasks and entrusts you carry them out in the way He has wired you.
You become a marked man or a marked woman.
Are you?
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