Take a look at your fingerprint. Go on look at it. Now look at another one, and another one. Can you see the difference? Fingerprints are part of what makes you, you! No one has your fingerprint. You are unique. Each of your fingers are unique to that finger, on your person. No one can take that away from you. They are one of the ways that we differentiate between people. We have a unique pattern on our fingers. Now think of fingerprints. Everything you touch leaves a mark, a print, or impression on what you are touching. We leave a trail of where we were and what we touched everywhere we go. Good or bad the evidence of what we touched is there.
See, it’s built into our DNA, another thing that shows us we are unique and unlike anyone else. It is the essence of who we are. We were meant to be unique. Meant to leave an impression. This goes far beyond anything that is just physical. It is spiritual as well. We are uniquely gifted to be someone that God can use to bless His creation. We cannot get away from the fact that it will take each and every believer to accomplish the will of God. Whether that means writing, preaching, encouraging, giving, studying, or just being there for people, we are all gifted to further the kingdom. Jesus in His great wisdom gave a variety of gifts so that we would work together.
While Jesus was physically walking the earth, he was like a super gift. He had it all. In the book of Ephesians Paul talks about the gifts that Jesus gave to us. In chapter 4:11-12, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (NKJV) Do you see the way that Jesus intended the ministry to continue. He gave a manifold of gifts to work together. We are not just one, we are united.
There is such a difference between the two. It allows for uniqueness of people. For different people, with unique gifts and personalities to work together, for one cause. See, to advance the kingdom of Christ, we all are indispensable. It may go forward without you, but it won’t be the same. You offer something that no one else can. Yourself.
During life we may go through stuff that, let’s be honest, really hurts. We may wonder why, or how things could go so wrong, but the truth is, it forms us. It hurts, but changes always do. We are to be refined. That process requires turning up the heat in life. Enduring through events that cost us, shape us, and if we fall onto the grace of God, refine us.
So, what does that mean. If Peter doesn’t fall in complete denial of Jesus, he might not be as open to going to gentials and sharing meals. If Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, who wrote our famous definition of love used in almost every wedding today, was not Saul the persecutor of the church, maybe he loses the perspective of what grace is. We are all given a life that, if we let it, can be refined into something more. Something that is indispensable to the kingdom.
The fact of the matter is that we are all uniquely qualified to serve. We all are given gifts to be used to build of the body of the church, and strike a blow at the kingdom of darkness. Without you, it’s just not the same. So, when you think that you are under qualified, or ungifted, you are wrong. Your whole thinking is wrong. If we will let God choose our path, and follow that, whatever it may be, we are the most qualified, and sometimes the only qualified person. You are gifted. Don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re not, even if that person, is you.
