The Hope QuotientSample

God says to us, “I would like to do a great work in the world, and to accomplish that, I plan to use the gifts I placed inside you.”

One time our team learned of a town in Cambodia where 100 percent of the girls were sex trafficked. People with different gifts mobilized, and God used their gifts to cut sex trafficking in a town on the other side of the planet by 50 percent. 

That’s the kind of thing God wants to do in our world through the gifts He has placed within us. When we discover and use our God-given gifts, we are freed up to be ourselves, which releases resources into the world. 

You might ask, “What if I try something and it doesn’t work?” Good job. You’ve just discovered another thing for which you’re not gifted. Thomas Edison said, “I never failed. It was just a two-thousand-step process.”

The list of things I’m not good at is twenty times longer than the list of things I am good at. That truth frees me. Please try and fail. It helps you identify your gifts and gives your funny stories to tell. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just move on to the next thing. 

Discovering our gifts is a multistep process for all of us. Don’t be bothered with what you’re not good at. God has a whole army of people who are gifted and wired to do it. Your gifts are not exactly like someone else’s, so dig for them. 

When you find your gift, it lowers stress and increases joy. Using your gifts makes life a lot more fun.

Using your gifts also empowers you to affirm others instead of chopping them down. Your encouragement to others frees up yet more resources to do the work God wants to see accomplished in this world.

Life-changing? You bet! World-changing? Absolutely!

Think Up:

Lower your stress, increase your joy, and have fun by using your gifts.

Do you want to live every day doing what you’re not good at? What are you willing to change? (Read on).