Topic: Even Your Weaknesses Bring Glory to God [RICK WARREN Devotional 22 April 2021]
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Even Your Weaknesses Bring Glory to God
“My friend, I ask, ‘Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did?’”
Romans 9:20 (CEV)
Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, Experiences—these are the five things that make you, you. I call them your SHAPE.
Accepting your SHAPE—the unique way God made you to bring glory to him—means to believe God knows best. It all comes down to a matter of trust. Do you believe God made a mistake when he made you? Or do you trust him, knowing he has a plan for your life?
Many of us make these kinds of statements to God: There are things I don’t like about myself. I wish I had a different hair color. I wish I were taller, shorter, skinnier. I wish I had more talent. I wish I could do ‘that.’ I wish I looked like him. I wish I had her smarts. And on and on our lists go.
This kind of thinking is basically telling God, “You blew it! Everybody else is okay. But you goofed up when you made me.”
When you reject yourself, you are in essence rejecting God, because he’s your Creator. When you don’t accept yourself, it’s rebellion against God. You’re saying, “God, I know better than you. You should have made me differently, with a different set of strengths and a different set of weaknesses.”
But God says, “No, I created you exactly the way you are because I want you to be you—with your strengths and your weaknesses. All of it can give me glory—if you’ll just start doing what I made you to do instead of trying to be like everybody else.”
It’s actually quite arrogant to reject yourself. The Bible says in Romans 9:20, “My friend, I ask, ‘Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did?’” (CEV).
Whenever you doubt God’s love and wisdom, you get into trouble. The root behind many of life’s problems is that you don’t trust God. You don’t believe God really loves you. You don’t believe he really has your best interest at heart. You wish he had made you something different. As a result, you have a spirit of bitterness that produces frustration and keeps you from being the person God wants you to be.
But you don’t have to live that way—there is hope! Job 10:10 says, “You guided my conception and formed me in the womb” (NLT). God wanted you, and he loves you. He shaped you just the way you are for his glory. Believe it, and then trust it!
- What about yourself have you always wanted to change? How do you think God may have intended to use that very trait to bring glory to him?
- How has God used your weaknesses to bring glory to him?
- When you believe God really loves you, how does that change the way you view yourself?