How to Serve God When Your Gifts aren’t Glamorous

Serve God even when You Feel Unqualified

Since I was a little girl, I’ve been drawn in by those who talk about their faith in front of crowds. My piano teacher, who also was a longtime family friend, took me to her church to watch the pianist, Dino, perform. This was years before his show in Branson.

For over two hours he entertained us with moving selections of both old hymns and contemporary worship music. His performance in the small town Oklahoma Baptist church touched all who came and many new souls were saved through Christ.

At that same church a few years later, I had the opportunity to hear Rick Stanley, Elvis Presley’s step-brother, share his testimony. With his larger than life voice, personal and moving story, and dynamic personality, we hung onto every word. At the end, 100s of people flocked to the front to give their lives to Jesus.

It was beautiful.

At every conference, musicians move others to tears. The speakers touch hearts with inspiring stories of how they overcame the most terrible tragedies one could imagine. All of these people serving God drew people in and brought them to the Lord. I watched them often with a little bit of jealousy. Why couldn’t I do that too?

Related Post: A Simple Solution for Knowing Your Life’s Purpose

My dear friend, David, who I write about in my grief posts was similar to those performers. He had a big, vibrant personality and always greeted everyone with the kind of smile that reached not only his mouth but also his entire face, eyes crinkling with laughter and shining with the love and acceptance that came from his love of Jesus Christ.

People flocked to be around him. They wanted to touch his shoulder or shake his hand. We spent hours listening to him tell stories, some from the Bible and some from daily life as he shared with us how to let Christ lead.

When David died, it took a long time for me to open my heart to God’s grace for my grief. I didn’t understand how that light could die. I write about that moment in my post, The Day I Discovered Christ in Me.

That was the first time I understood that the light that shone in David wasn’t David at all but was instead Christ’s Light and that it also resided within me. I finally got it that all of those ‘performers’ bringing people to Christ were moved by the Holy Spirit and what drew people in was not their own personalities but Christ the Lord shining through them.

The thought of Christ in me filled me so full that my excitement overflowed and bubbled out of me like a fountain. I longed to tell everyone. It’s all I wanted to talk about.

But how could I tell people? I don’t sing well. My personality is not magnetic. I’m just…normal. Even with the love of Christ propelling me forward, I didn’t know how or why anyone would listen. I considered writing about all that happened in my journey through grief and understanding of who Christ is and what He means for me. But I’m not a fancy writer either.

And so I wasn’t sure.

Through prayer, and more prayer, and quiet time, and studying scripture…and then more prayer, God spoke to my spirit and reminded me that whatever my gifts, no matter how small they seemed to me, they were just as dynamic, just as important, just as necessary as anyone else’s.

We forget that don’t we? Have you forgotten it, too?

Friend, God gifted me with the love of words, both spoken and written. And while I’ll not win prizes for how I speak or how I write, that’s okay because my most important goal is to speak and write to women to let them know what I didn’t know for so long, that Christ is for them. He’s for YOU. He’s in YOU. Recognize Him and accept Him. Oooh, I get excited just thinking about it as I write this paragraph!

What did God gift you with?

Maybe you’re the same as I am. Maybe you love the Lord and want to serve Him but aren’t sure how. Perhaps you feel unqualified or unworthy to talk to others about Christ and what He’s done in your life.

Believe me, I understand.

But let me help you with this. You are enough. God has given you your own unique gifts so that you can glorify Him. You might be patient and kind. Or maybe you’re a compassionate teacher, guiding others to learning new skills and inspiring their confidence.

Words don’t have to be written beautifully to share the message of Christ. Speeches don’t have to be dynamic to tell people what Christ has done for you and what He will do for them when they accept Him. Songs don’t need to win Grammys in order to move people and motivate them to search for God.

If you feel unqualified to serve, try these ideas out and see what works for you:

• Read Scripture to those in hospitals or nursing homes
• Deliver meals to a shut-in
• Help pack backpacks with food for school kids to have on the weekends
• Talk to all others with kindness and grace
• Volunteer at the food pantry or soup kitchen
• Share your testimony with small groups of people in your church (Think you don’t have a testimony? You do! Why do you love the Lord? How did you come to Christ? That’s your story!)
• Visit a patient on Hospice
• Bake cookies for someone lonely

Somehow, even though we read about spiritual gifts and identify our own, something gets lost in the implementation. We might say we understand that we have a gift but something deep inside holds us back from living it. That fear blocks us from serving God. We think that because any gift we might have isn’t glamorous that we aren’t fit to serve Him. That’s simply not true.

Related Link: Free Spiritual Gift Assessment – We All Have a Gift. What’s Yours?

Consider the ideas I’ve shared. Think of more. No matter what you’re good at, you can use that gift to serve God.

Amen.

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