Fearfully And Wonderfully Made
I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14
The book of Psalms is possibly one of the most soul searching books ever written. The words penned there cause us to look deep within, to see our humanity, our sinful nature, our complete unworthiness of the grace, mercy, forgiveness and love that God so generously extends to us. It makes us so completely aware of how intimately God sees all that we are as well as all that we can be.
When God fashioned you within the confines of your mother’s womb He was very intentional and precise about every detail. How do we know that? Nature itself reveals that to us. Our God is a master of detail. All of creation is filled with the most intricate, minute details. From the delicate wings of a butterfly to the absolute complexity of the human makeup, we find proof of His attention to detail. As a young girl growing up in the country, I would walk the fields, talking to God, admiring the beauty of His creation. The pillowy softness of the clouds, the beauty of His amazing sunsets, the brightness of the stars in the night sky, all filled with detail and wonder and great purpose.
With unmatched detail He specifically designed and instilled within you carefully chosen gifts and abilities uniquely your own. Treasures placed within for you to search out and discover, priceless jewels within for us to uncover and reveal, not only to ourselves, but to our world. Not only for ourselves, but for our world; to bless, help and encourage each other. To be the light that He desires us to be. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made.There will be no one else, in all the world, in all the centuries before and those that may come after, exactly like you. No one with your exact makeup, your exact gifts, abilities and design. When pursued, these gifts and abilities will shape us into the person He designed us to be. Discovering and pursuing our gifts and talents is different for each of us. It can be a daunting mission, filled with uncertainty, fear and intimidation. Pursuit can be scary, but also liberating, freeing us to reach our God given potential, to live a life of fulfillment and true discovery.
There will be no one else, in all the world, in all the centuries before and those that may come after, exactly like you.
How do we know what we can be? How do we discover the many gifts, talents, traits and abilities that God has placed within us? Finding who we are and the gifts, talents and abilities that we possess is a process through life. It is not a destination, it is a journey that we will be on as long as we have breath. What we may look ahead and see as an expected destination is merely a milestone along the journey. There will always be more to discover. The discovery of your gifts and talents begins with realizing what you are good at, what you enjoy doing, what you are drawn to. It is a rare person that can sit down at a piano and begin to play to perfection without any previous practice, or stand before an easel and paint a beautiful work of art without spending hours to perfect their gift. Gifts and talents from God rarely come without work. Once you discover what you are drawn to, working to perfect that gift is part of the journey.
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them. Genesis 1:27
Discovering, searching, seeking, digging, reaching is completely up to you. No one can walk through this process for you. Others can encourage and support you on this journey but the actual work is up to you. You may think that it is too hard, perhaps you feel under qualified or too shy, timid or even afraid. Just as there will always be more to discover, there will also be hurdles and roadblocks to overcome. The enemy of your soul does not want you to find fulfillment in the gifts that God has placed within you. He will do everything in his power to deter you from realizing God’s plan for your life.
It is vital that you see him and his trickery for what it is. When we lift our voices in singing praise unto God, when we stand before many, or even a few, to speak words of encouragement, when we create something wonderful with our hands or write a few words in a book or a blog that will lift someone up, when we write a song filled with adoration unto our God, our enemy is filled with jealousy. We are doing what he was created to do but can no longer do. He traded his gifts for rebellion and he will place any hindrance before us to keep us from discovering and walking in ours.
Again we ask, how do we discover what God has placed in us? We first must realize that we each have talents to discover. In creating you God did not leave you without gifts specifically chosen for you. Each of us have different gifts. Mine will not look like yours and yours will not look like those of your neighbor, but each of us have possession of gifts and talents that have been given to us from God. We have all seen that gifted person that oozes talent. The one that can play any instrument within reach or can sing all the notes to perfection but, be assured, there are gifts within you that are just as real, just as valuable, just as necessary and will leave you just as fulfilled when you walk in them.
When you acknowledge to yourself that you actually do have gifts and talents to be used and you begin to look for them, you will begin to see them. It may come from an unexpected word from a friend, or it could be a talent that you admire in someone else and would love to learn, or a task that you find real joy in doing. Often our gifts come so naturally to us that we don’t readily see the value that they bring. You may have a gift with numbers or the ability to easily read and understand complicated contracts or the gift of helping someone find balance with their finances and lifestyle. All of these matter. All of these bring value. These are abilities and talents that God gave you. Just as the “heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalms 19:1) we do the same when we discover and embrace our God given talents. We are each uniquely made, designed in His image. It is impossible that any one of us would be without gifts or talents to discover.
So, how do we discover our gifts? By being honest with ourselves. Ask yourself, what am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? Make yourself available, volunteer, offer to help wherever help is needed. Doors to your talents can open where least expected. You have talent. It is not vain to recognize and take ownership of those gifts that God placed in you. Own them, while still realizing that they are gifts given to you. You did nothing to deserve or earn those gifts. In His loving kindness and tender mercy God blessed you with them. For those gifts to be truly fulfilling in your life they must be accompanied by a submissive spirit, a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness. Open your heart and hands and give those gifts back to God to be used for His glory. That is when we find the true meaning of fulfillment. All of creation is filled with purpose, with mankind having the greatest purpose of all, to lift up praise, worship and adoration unto our God. When we discover and use for His glory the gifts and abilities He has placed within us, we do just that.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17
Even as I write this I am striving to reach for, to pursue, more of what God has intended for my own life, to further develop the gifts and abilities that He so intentionally placed within me. And I find that, after years of living, the pursuit is still scary. I would encourage you to not allow fear to hold you back. If allowed, fear will rob from us the fulfillment that God intended in our lives. Push past the fear. You will be so glad that you did.
“True happiness involves the full use of one’s power and talents.” John W. Gardner
Gail for Gail’s Favorite Things