“Each of you as a good manager must use the gift that God has given you to serve others.”
1 Peter 4:10 (GW) Your abilities are for the benefit of other people. The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you as a good manager must use the gift that God has given you to serve others” (GW). Nobody is good at everything. Nobody has every talent. There are no perfect people who can say to the world, “I don’t need anybody else.” We need each other. We were made to work in teams! That’s why you need a small group and a church family. We’re better together. Here’s the key to success: Build on your strengths so that your weaknesses become irrelevant. Every successful person does this. Just work on what you’re good at, and make it better. Here’s a second rule of success: Team up with people who are good at what you’re not good at. Team up with people who complement you. Everybody has something to contribute. Nobody has it all together. We need each other. This, by the way, is one of the purposes of marriage. In marriage we’re put together to complement each other’s strengths and to compensate for each other’s weaknesses. What happens when we don’t compensate for each other’s weaknesses? We criticize each other. That’s not what marriage is for. Marriage puts two sinners together—so there can be no perfect relationships. But in a marriage, you know the other’s weaknesses, so you can help compensate for them. For example, take bill paying and budgeting. Who should do it? The one who does it better! The Bible doesn’t tell us who should do one role over another. Just figure out who does it better, and in doing that, you compensate for each other’s weaknesses. That’s why my wife, Kay, always drives; she’s a much more careful driver than I am. This also applies to your work. If you want your business to be effective, here’s the key: Staff by SHAPE. Help people discover their SHAPE—their Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences—and put them in the positions they’re good at. When you do that, you don’t have to manage them and you won’t have to motivate them. Why? Because they’re doing what they love to do, and they’re good at it. God wants every person to use their abilities to help other people. We need each other!
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“Love sincerely . . . Hold on to what is good. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other.”
Romans 12:9-10 (GW) Strong marriages are good for everyone. They benefit the individuals who are part of those relationships and can even help to strengthen whole societies. Throughout history, marriage has been the fundamental building block of every society and culture. When marriages have been strong, nations have been strong. When marriages and families weaken, cultures decline. Strong marriages benefit the individuals in the relationship too. God uses marriage to perfect your character. In relationships you learn to be unselfish and loving. If you get married, no relationship will have a greater impact on your life. If you’re not married, God can and will use other people to build your character. I promise you—single people don’t get off the hook! Godly, others-focused singles play a critical role in flourishing cultures as well. In fact, sometimes, they play roles that married couples and those with children can’t. The truth is, societies also need singles to live in strong, fearless relationships with others. Whether or not you’re married, one of the main purposes of life is to grow up and realize it’s not all about you. In fact, real happiness comes from giving your life away, being unselfish, serving, and loving. This is called maturity. Life is a laboratory of learning how to love. It’s the most important thing in life because God is love, and he wants you to become like him. He wants to make you like Jesus Christ. He wants to build your character. If you’re married, the number one tool that God uses in your life to build Christ-like character is your spouse. Every day you get hundreds of opportunities to think about the other person instead of yourself. The Bible says, “Love sincerely . . . Hold on to what is good. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other” (Romans 12:9-10 GW). Do you do that in your marriage? Love washes the dishes. Love takes out the garbage. Love puts the other person first. Excel in showing respect for each other so that you grow to be more like Christ. It will lead to a stronger relationship for you and a stronger society for everyone. “In God’s plan men and women need each other.”
1 Corinthians 11:11 (TLB) Marriage doesn’t solve your problems. Marriage does not create your problems. Marriage reveals your problems. It simply magnifies what was already a problem when you were living as a single adult. So if marriage doesn’t solve your problems, what does marriage do? Why did God design marriage in the first place? God created marriage for the connection of men and women. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:11, “In God’s plan men and women need each other” (TLB). Whether or not you get married, if you’re a woman, you need men in your life; if you’re a man, you need women in your life. Why? Because nobody holds the full image of God. Women get part of it and men get part of it, and we need each other. God wired us this way. God thought up gender, sex, and marriage. What a God! Did you ever wonder why God made man first and then woman a little bit later? Why didn’t he make them both at the same time? I think he did it for Adam’s benefit. I think he wanted Adam to realize how much he needed women in his life. Genesis 2:18 says, “It isn’t good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him” (TLB). You need companions in all different areas of your life. But marriage is a particularly significant way to provide companionship; it’s in a relational class all by itself. Here’s what Jesus had to say about it: “‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together” (Mark 10:6-9 NLT). This passage makes three major points about marriage: 1. Marriage is God’s plan. It’s not a tradition you can just throw out. 2. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Their body parts fit together for a purpose—the creation of everybody else. 3. Marriage is designed to be permanent. That doesn’t always happen. God is always ready and willing to forgive you when you don’t live up to his standards. But marriage is meant to be for life. Do you realize how radical those three statements are? Even if many people don’t believe them, they’re still the truth! The reality of life today is that many people live outside of this marriage ideal. But just because we live in the real, not necessarily the ideal, doesn’t mean we get to say the ideal doesn’t exist. The ideal is still the way God designed marriage. And when you choose to live inside of that design, you’ll reap the benefits of connection that God intended marriage to provide. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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