A Cold Heater
Read or listen then scroll down to the end for questions to help you apply this to your everyday life!
Even though I keep the thermostat in my office set at seventy-four degrees, with nice big windows behind my head and beautiful stained concrete floors under my feet, I’m often times still a little chilly even though the room is a comfortable temperature. Because of that, I keep a small portable heater behind my desk to break the chill of the windows and the floor.
About three weeks ago, I unplugged my heater for just a few minutes so I could plug in something else. Then, when I plugged the heater back in, it started blowing cold air. What in the world?! Was it a two-in-one and I didn’t know it? I searched all over that device to see if there was some sort of switch to change it from air to heat, but there was no such switch to be found. So, I just left it alone for a few weeks thinking maybe it just needed time to rest.
This morning when I caught myself shiver, I reached behind me to turn the heater on. And what blew out? Cold air! You’ve got to be kidding me! How does a heater blow out cold air? I did everything I could think of trying to get it to function properly, but the more I tried, the colder I got. So eventually I just turned it off, came to the realization that I’m just going to have to get a new heater, and decided I’ll keep this one tucked away until summer when I might need a little cool breeze.
Did you see what just happened there? The heater functioned, but not in the way it was created to function. Because it did a good job of doing something other than what it was intended to do, it was held on to but there was no place for it to serve at this time. The moment it decided to try to operate in a way something else was created to operate, was the moment it was no longer able to fulfill its purpose.
Sadly, this is similar to what so many of us experience. We do a lot of things well, but how many of them are actually the things we’re supposed to be doing? Then we choose to feel like the victim when we aren’t positioned where we think we should be positioned, when we’re replaced by someone else, or when we never fulfill our God-given purpose.
We know from Proverbs 18:16 that our gift will make room for us, but nowhere does it promise us that room will be made for us when we try to operate in someone else’s gift. If God has given you a speaking gift, don’t try to hide behind serving. If God has given you a serving gift, don’t try to create a platform for yourself. If you’re a two-in-one, know what season you’re in and function accordingly. The bottom line is this – focus on doing well what God has created you to do because there is only so much that can be done with a cold heater in winter!
Questions to Ask
· What spiritual gift(s) has God given you?
· What are you doing to grow and develop your gift?
· In what ways are you trying to operate in a way you were not created to function?
Scripture to Study
· Proverbs 18:16
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