Month: July 2011

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Don’t Let Limitations Limit Vision

I was reading my YouVersion.com Bible study this morning and catching up on days that I had missed and this is one of them from Rick Warren’s Daily Devotional.

Esther 2:17 ~ And the king loved Esther more than any of the other young women. He was so delighted with her that he set the royal crown on her head and declared her queen instead of Vashti.

God will not only use your gifts to fulfill your destiny, he’ll also use your limitations.

Consider Queen Esther: She had several big limitations that made her perfect for the role God wanted her to fulfill. She was an orphan adopted by Mordecai; she was a minority, a Jew living in a Persian country; and she was a single woman.

And God used all of these things, along with the gifts of her beauty, brains, and personality, to fulfill her destiny. Sometimes what looks like a disaster in your life is part of a much bigger plan. But you will never fulfill your destiny if you are having a pity party.

Esther could have just said, “If only I hadn’t been chosen, if only I wasn’t Jewish, if only I was like someone else.” A lot of people do that. They live their lives in resentment, always looking at people and saying, “Well it must be nice to be them.”

If you have that attitude you will never fulfill your destiny. You have to realize that the unpleasant obstacles in your life are often God-ordained opportunities to make a difference.

You might be in a situation right now where everything is going wrong and you can’t figure it out. But God knows. Nothing in your life is accidental. The pleasures and pains, the opportunities and obstacles, God can use it all. There is nothing God cannot use for good in your life if you’ll hand it over to him – and then trust him.

This reminded me that God uses all experiences and limitations to bring glory to Him! I think that is amazing! Pray and ask God to show you ways you can use your gifts to make a difference.

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Forgiveness

“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.” Luke 7:47a NLT

Overflowing love is the natural response to forgiveness and the appropriate consequence of faith. But only those who realize the depth of their sin can appreciate the complete forgiveness God offers them.

Do you appreciate the wideness of God’s mercy? Are you grateful for His forgiveness?

Your faith has saved you; go in peace. Luke 7:50 NLT

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Mentoring

Have you ever had someone in your life that you really looked up to and thought that everything they said could apply to your life? Well, if you haven’t you need to have this experience. Everyone needs a Mentor. It is vital and crucial for your growth in Jesus Christ. Mentors give advice, pray and encourage those that they mentor, AND you don’t have to know everything to be a mentor.

Cindy Beall stated about Mentoring, “…to have people speaking into my life regularly is what caused such a passion to rise up in me for mentoring. We were not created to go through life alone. We have all experienced things in life that can benefit someone else.”

Here are some points comprised from OKC Lifechurch.TV Mentoring class June 4, 2011.

~Mentoring is empowering another person by sharing your experiences and resources.
~Mentoring is a God Journey that you take together.
~Mentoring is a way to help others reach their “God” potential!
~Mentoring is about who you are, what people see in you, than what you “know”.
~You don’t have to be perfect to be a Mentor.
~Mentoring is not a program, but a lifestyle and a culture.
~Three stages of Mentoring: Initiating the relationship, maintaining a healthy balance, and transitioning (finding end or change).
~To inspire change in those that are mentored, one must provide challenging opportunities and intentional conversations.
~Mentoring is not about you, it’s about what the person mentored wants, not what the Mentor wants to see happen.
~A mentoring relationship can start with reading a resource together and discussing it. Ask: What one thing stuck out? What do you disagree with? What is your favorite quote? What is the action to take?
~Remember not to over-talk. If you come to the end of Mentoring time together and you have said everything that you want to say, you said too much.
~The difference between mentoring and counseling: staying in the future and what is next, instead of the past and previous healing.

“I want to make a difference and leave this world knowing that I did!”

If you are interested in finding a mentor, check out Findamentor.TV provided by the Lifechurch.TV~Oklahoma City campus.