Live Your Potential

Live Your Potential
How can we learn to appreciate and use the talents and gifts God has given us?

1 Chronicles 15:1 – 16:3

Have you ever envied someone else’s abilities or thought that others don’t appreciate your skills? Almost everyone falls into one of those two camps. But God gives you specific abilities for a purpose. He wants to use those gifts for his glory and others’ good. This study is designed to help you identify your gifts and look for ways to put them into practice.


When it comes to using the talents and gifts God has given us, we must do two things:



1. You must IDENTIFY the Current Issue.

The issues we face fall within one of two extremes.

You either ENVY the abilities of other people and belittle your own strengths.

Or

You RESENT the fact that nobody gives you credit for your skills and feel underappreciated.

You must understand that what looks to you like the smallest talent may be exactly what God wants to use in a certain situation. God is a God of possibilities, and he can use any gift you have for his glory and others’ good.



2. You must DISCOVER the eternal principles.

A. We must UNDERSTAND how God wants to use us.

David built houses for himself in the city of David. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. (1 Chronicles 15:1-3)


B. We must LEARN how to obey God in the DETAILS of our lives.

“And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites… So the Priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. (1 Chronicles 15:4-15)



C. We must CELEBRATE when God use the gifts he has given us.

So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom with rejoicing. And because God helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. (1 Chronicles 15:25, 26)


You will never learn to appreciate the things that God is doing in your life until you learn to celebrate the things he has gifted you to do. Because the joy of what you are doing is predicated upon what you have been assigned to do.

It is for this reason, that many of us do not like what we are doing.

Moving the ark of God was a big deal! A lot of people had a part in the process, contributing what they did well. In contrast to the last time the ark had been moved, this procedure pleased God.


D. We must DELIGHT ourselves in obedience to God.

a. By being IN LOVE with getting it right.

b. By PRAISE God for using us.

Read 1 Chronicles 15:29 – 16: 3. David loved it that he’d gotten it right this time. He was so exuberant that he played music, danced, and fed everybody. Basically, he threw a party.

We must be the same way, when we know we are using the gifts God has given us in the way he wants us to use them, there is nothing like it. We can move forward with confidence and joy.