by Peg Yarbrough

Your top priority in life is to love and worship God! Worship has both a vertical and a horizontal aspect. The horizontal aspect is service to your fellow man. This glorifies and pleases God.

God has filled you with gifts, abilities and talents. He wants you to use them, not primarily for your job, but primarily in service to Him. He expects and deserves your best effort. He expects you to make the most of what you have been given; that is His divine design for your life. He expects you to leave this world better off than when you found it.

Matthew 22:36-39
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Loving God and loving your neighbor are two parts to a whole. This is your divine design. One cannot separate service to our fellow man and worship.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

You are not saved by good works, you are saved for good works.

You are meant to be God’s poem, His masterpiece! Your life is meant to stop people in their tracks, and draw attention to your Creator. Your lives should constantly be about bringing glory to God. You are not saved by good works, but you are saved for good works, the good works that God has ordained, long ago, that you should walk in them.

Isaiah 43:7
Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory…

Isaiah 43:21
This people have I formed for myself…

We are here for God’s glory. We are in a sense “billboards,” or walking advertisements, for our Heavenly Father. We are to reach out and touch lives in such a way that we build a bridge for Jesus to walk across from our lives, into another heart. That is the greatest gift of all.

God’s very nature is that of a giver. “For God so loved the world that He gave…” God has designed all of nature to give back. One seed produces much fruit. Even a decaying body or plant gives back to the earth. You are designed to be an imitator of His nature. When you are not seeking ways to give, your divine design is distorted, and problems arise.

Jesus was the perfect giver. He gave his all. He said that he glorified his Father by completing the work that God gave him to do. (John 17:4 ) He also said that as the Father sent him, he now sends us to minister in his stead. (John 20:21) That is an awesome truth. We are sent by our Lord himself to fulfill one or more assignments while we are here on earth. How seriously do we take our mission?

It is in fulfilling our divine design that we are the most satisfied in life. Anything less leaves us feeling lacking or unfulfilled. All of life is about giving and receiving. God wants to give to you. Then, He wants you to give it away, so that He can give you more.

That’s the design, God fills us up, we give it out, He fills us up again. The prayer in Ephesians illustrates it best:

Ephesians 3:14-21
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Paul’s prayer for you is that you would be filled with all the fulness of God! Just let that sink in for a moment. God fills you up, and you give it out. That way the church brings glory to God. Each member in particular, bringing glory to God.

Many of us are not receiving more in our lives because we have broken the flow of giving. We have broken the flow of how life works. We are so focused on our “stuff”, that we are like the Dead Sea, all inlets, and no outlets. We are designed to be givers, not takers. We need to give back physically, emotionally, financially and most of all spiritually (the things of God).

How do you give? The answer is simple, in any way you can. Serve with the talents and abilities the Lord has blessed you with. Romans chapter 12 gives a myriad of examples of ways to give: prophesying, serving, teaching , encouraging others, giving financially, leading others, or the gift of showing kindness. Every talent is needed for the body of Christ to function as a whole. No part is unnecessary.

There are no small talents, only “small” people. So much unhappiness in our lives stems from opposing God’s design, his plans, for our life. Life is short. We have “one shot” at getting it right. Why not be thankful for the talents we do have.

Romans. 9:20
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

We need to PURSUE ways of giving. You may say, I am too damaged, or have too many faults to be a giver. Let’s look at how your faults stack up to these “heroes” of faith in the Bible:

Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses couldn’t speak well, Deborah was a woman called to rule in a male dominated society, David had affairs, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, Peter was hot tempered, Paul had poor health, was often broke and incarcerated, Timothy was timid.

Can you relate to any of these flaws? If you just focus on negatives, the above mentioned group seems like a bunch of misfits. But these are the men and women called heroes in the Bible. It is fairly obvious that they are not heroes by their perfection but because they obeyed God in spite of their frailties. They fulfilled their divine design.

Each one of these people could have been considered a “misfit” by the world’s standards, but they were used by God, for His service in spite of their weaknesses. He will use you too… if you stop making excuses! By divine design, we serve God in spite of our weakness.

II Corinthians 12:9
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God’s strength works best, is made evident, in our weakness. No one is perfect, but that doesn’t mean that we are not valuable. There is only one you! You are important, you are wonderful, you are awesome. Only you can do exactly what YOU can do for God. If you don’t do it the body of Christ suffers. If you do it, the whole body is stronger.

Your call to salvation and your call to service are synonymous. You need to learn to serve from the heart, not with eye service as men pleasers, but doing the will of God from the heart. You need to give, not out of duty, but out of love and thanksgiving.

I know that I can never repay God for the wonderful things He has given me in this life – much less the riches He has promised me in eternity! Therefore, any service I can provide now is a joy, and is small thing in comparison to the riches of His blessings.

Remember, you are not saved by good works but you are saved for good works. So turn off the TV! Put down the Cheetos! Put aside your fear and get out there and GIVE! Give like there is no tomorrow! Just taste and see that the Lord is good. And when you take your focus off of yourself, the Lord will fill you up. That’s your “Divine Design.”

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The above article is a portion of the information contained in our new the two tape series, “Divine Design.” For more information on receiving these tapes contact Light of Christ Ministries, GA, at 706-265-1452 or e-mail [email protected]