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Why Did God Make You Unique?
About 20 years ago I came up with a little acrostic called SHAPE to talk about the five things that make you, you. SHAPE is the way God wired you for your life. Every area of your life is influenced by the way you’re shaped.
Spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, experiences — these are the five things that make you, you. In that combination of spiritual gifts, you have heart, passion, and interests. Why do you think you have those interests? Because God gave them to you. If you’re interested in golf or hunting or sewing or art or music, where do you think you got that interest? You got it from God. He wired it into your system. If we all liked to do the same things, there would be a lot less accomplished in the world.
So God made you unique, and there’s nobody else like you. Why should you even care?
1. Because your SHAPE reveals God’s purpose for you.
The way you find out what God wants you to do with your life is to discover how he shaped you. But here’s the thing: God won’t force you to do his plan. You can waste your life. You can use it on all kinds of personal, self-centered things and totally miss God’s plan and purpose for your life. In fact, most people do. That’s the tragedy.
And that’s why they’re so frustrated! They’re trying to be something somebody else wants them to be rather than what God wants them to be.
2. Because your SHAPE equips you to serve God.
There is a life mission that God has for you that nobody else on this planet can do. Maybe you’ve missed that mission. Maybe you’ve missed serving God. I’m saying, “Let’s start today. Let’s make the rest of your life the best of your life.” God will never ask you to do anything in life that he hasn’t already given you the ability to do. So you look at your abilities and realize, “I’m good at that. That’s what God wants me to do.”
3. Because life is a test.
This life is preparation for the next life in Heaven. God says, “This is a test. I’m testing you to see what you will do with what you’ve been given on Earth. Based on that, I will determine what I give you to do in Heaven for eternity.”
4. Because it shows God’s glory.
When you use your SHAPE and you do what God made you to do, it not only feels good to you, but it also makes God smile. Iranaeus was a great Christian leader in the first century who said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” You know what makes God smile? When he looks down and sees someone using the talents that God gave him for God’s glory.
Isaiah 43:7 says, “Bring to me all the people who are mine, whom I made for my glory, whom I formed and made” (NCV). If you didn’t bring glory to God, you wouldn’t be alive. God made you to enjoy you!
This devotional © 2014 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
About 20 years ago I came up with a little acrostic called SHAPE to talk about the five things that make you, you. SHAPE is the way God wired you for your life. Every area of your life is influenced by the way you’re shaped.
Spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, experiences — these are the five things that make you, you. In that combination of spiritual gifts, you have heart, passion, and interests. Why do you think you have those interests? Because God gave them to you. If you’re interested in golf or hunting or sewing or art or music, where do you think you got that interest? You got it from God. He wired it into your system. If we all liked to do the same things, there would be a lot less accomplished in the world.
So God made you unique, and there’s nobody else like you. Why should you even care?
1. Because your SHAPE reveals God’s purpose for you.
The way you find out what God wants you to do with your life is to discover how he shaped you. But here’s the thing: God won’t force you to do his plan. You can waste your life. You can use it on all kinds of personal, self-centered things and totally miss God’s plan and purpose for your life. In fact, most people do. That’s the tragedy.
And that’s why they’re so frustrated! They’re trying to be something somebody else wants them to be rather than what God wants them to be.
2. Because your SHAPE equips you to serve God.
There is a life mission that God has for you that nobody else on this planet can do. Maybe you’ve missed that mission. Maybe you’ve missed serving God. I’m saying, “Let’s start today. Let’s make the rest of your life the best of your life.” God will never ask you to do anything in life that he hasn’t already given you the ability to do. So you look at your abilities and realize, “I’m good at that. That’s what God wants me to do.”
3. Because life is a test.
This life is preparation for the next life in Heaven. God says, “This is a test. I’m testing you to see what you will do with what you’ve been given on Earth. Based on that, I will determine what I give you to do in Heaven for eternity.”
4. Because it shows God’s glory.
When you use your SHAPE and you do what God made you to do, it not only feels good to you, but it also makes God smile. Iranaeus was a great Christian leader in the first century who said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” You know what makes God smile? When he looks down and sees someone using the talents that God gave him for God’s glory.
Isaiah 43:7 says, “Bring to me all the people who are mine, whom I made for my glory, whom I formed and made” (NCV). If you didn’t bring glory to God, you wouldn’t be alive. God made you to enjoy you!
This devotional © 2014 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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Join Pastor Rick for this message series on God’s calling for your life as you learn how to discern that calling and use it as a blessing for the church, other people, and in your own life.
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