(today is) Day 32: Using What God Gave You

(Recall your unique, God-given SHAPE: Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experience.)

So much in the last two days about SHAPE, but I'll can only share one of them. Here's an excerpt from an excerpt from and excerpt. The road goes ever on and on...

CHARMAINE -- My mom went to CostCo and picked up 2 more copies of Purpose-Driven Life. U-O-ME 9.99 + tax.

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"SHAPE: Employing Your Experiences
You have been shaped by your experiences in life, most of which were beyond your control. God allow them for his purpose of molding you. In determining Your shapre for serving God, you should examine at least six kinds of experiences frrom your past:

Family experiences: What did you learn growing up in your family?
Educational experiences: What were you favorite subjects in school?
Vocational experiences: What jobs have you been most effective in and enjoyed most?
Spiritual experiences: What have been you most meaningful times with God?
Ministry experiences: How have you served God in the past?
Painful experiences: What problems, hurts, thourns, and trials have you learned from?

{God uses the painful expereiences to prepare you most for ministry.} God never wastes a hurt! In fact, your greatest ministry will most liekely come out of your greatest hurt....

...God intentionally allows you to go through painful experiences to equip you for ministry to others: "He comforts in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubles, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." [2 Corinthians 1:4 (NLT)]

If you really desire to be used by God, you must understand a powerful truth: The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life -- the ones you've wanted to hide and forget -- are the experiences God wants to use to help others. They are your ministry!

For God to use your painful experiences, you must be willing to share them. You have to stop covering them up, and you must honestly admit your faults, failures, and fears. Doing this will probably be your most effective ministry. People are always more encouraged when we share how God's grace helped us in weakness than we brag about our strengths.

Paul understood this truth, so he was honest about his bouts with depression. He admitted, '"I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. And he did help us and saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again.' [2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (LB)]

{What if Paul had kept this experience to himself?} Millions of people would never have benefited from it. Only shared experiences can help others. Aldous Huxley said, 'Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.' What will you do with what you've been through? Don't waste your pain; use it to help others."

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{DAY 32 to be added later!}