Is Your Job a Mismatch for Your Gifts? - July 9, 2013

1 Corinthians 7:17
17 Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all the churches.

God does not expect you to glorify Him with gifts you don't have. But He does expect you to glorify Him with gifts you do have.

To fulfill God's will for your life, you need work that expresses what God made you to be. If you're in a job that is not using the talents, gifts, abilities, and interests that God gave you, you may want to pray about whether or not you're in a mismatched job.

This is a serious problem, and it's a spiritual issue. It is far more important than you may think it is -- because God has given you your gifts, talents, and abilities, and one day He's going to say, "What did you do with them?" And do you want to say, "Well, I spent my life at a job that didn't use them."

Get into whatever God made you to be. The first step you need to take is some self-appraisal. You need to ask yourself, "What did God make me to be? During this appraisal, you may even discover that you are in the very job God wants you to be, and you can develop a new attitude about your work.

Pray about this - Are you in a job that doesn't match who God made you to be, or are you exactly where God wants you to be?

It just seems like a waste of time to chase after something we're not made to do. I guess that's why our parents tell us to do well in every subject, so our choices for post secondary education aren't restricted upon the amount of effort that we input.
Although it sounds like cheesy, we should be looking for what makes us who we are.
But isn't it unfair, pursuing a career in which we don't really have a say? I mean, we always have a choice but does God select our talents and passions based on our free will? Or as we're created?

How meaningful is our lives if we have not even used the gifts that God gave us?
I find that I struggle sometimes in this:
What is the gift that God gave me?
Many say how we should use our talents to glorify God and how our gifts are intended for a purpose, but how do we know for sure what our gifts are in the first place?
I think it's through experience and seeing what we find we are passionate about. As we are all in school, we ask ourselves this many times:
What path am I going to take for the future?
Or
Am I sure this is what I want to do?

I find it hard to answer these questions, but I think what we do now also can be done to worship.