Welcome to Memorial Day weekend! Many view this as the official kickoff to summer, while others use this time to reflect on the cost to even have a holiday. Memorial Day is to honor those in military service who lost their lives to preserve our freedoms. To those veterans out there, thank you for your sacrifice away from your families, the comforts of home and contributing to the ease of living in a free county. Thank you!
Memorial Day makes me think of fighting and sacrificing for our dreams. While I’m not in the active military, make no mistake, I’m in a battle and so are you. For believers, we’ve been recruited to God’s Army. Part of being in God’s Army is to use our gifts, talents, abilities and yes, even our dreams to spread His message of salvation and love.
God is not one to shy away from a battle. All we have to read is the Old Testament to see there is time for war and a time for peace. I’m offering a call to arms in this time of war. Not a war with guns and bombs, but a war for our dreams. This is a war where we use our God given talents to fulfill the dreams He has placed in our hearts.
It could be the dream of writing a book, building your own business, finding another job, or developing a new product. Whatever it is, God has put the dream in your heart for a reason. Do not let it go. It may have been dormant for awhile or is a slow burning ache which won’t let us go.
I challenge us to use this day, this moment to plant our flag in the ground and say enough is enough to the lies of the enemy!
1 Peter 4:10-11 (ESV) states, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
This doesn’t say, if we’ve receive a gift, it says, “As each has received a gift…” If we have accepted God as our Lord and Savior, then we have been given a gift. It’s the lie of our enemy to make us believe that God skipped over us when the gifts and abilities wagon went by.
If we’re jealous of another person’s gift, look at what Romans 12:6-8 (NLV) says, “We all have different gifts that God has given to us by His loving-favor. We are to use them. If someone has the gift of preaching the Good News, he should preach. He should use the faith God has given him. If someone has the gift of helping others, then he should help. If someone has the gift of teaching, he should teach. If someone has the gift of speaking words of comfort and help, he should speak. If someone has the gift of sharing what he has, he should give from a willing heart. If someone has the gift of leading other people, he should lead them. If someone has the gift of showing kindness to others, he should be happy as he does it.”
How amazing is this? God has provided us different gifts and abilities to fulfill unique roles in His Kingdom. God doesn’t create an assembly line of lives. God doesn’t do boring. He creates beautifully, special opportunities for us to point the world to Him through our talents and abilities.
This responsibility is awesome. God has invited us into His kingdom as servants with a place at the table. Not just any table mind you, the table of the most high King. The King of Kings. The original creator.
Are we going to push ourselves back from the table with the gift of salvation firmly in our grasp and say thanks for the invite, I’ll see myself out to handle the rest of my life? No! We’d never take a friend’s hospitality or gift for granted. At least I hope we wouldn’t because we wouldn’t be friends for long. But when we waste our talents becoming less than what God has laid out for us, this is exactly what we are doing.
I have a challenge for you this Memorial Day. First, find a veteran and thank them for their service to our county. Next, I challenge you to stake your claim to the dream God has put in your heart. Seek out how God wants you to begin serving Him with the gifts He’s blessed you with. I’ve created a free workbook to help draw you closer to what God wants you to do.
Share in the comments below what you discovered so we can encourage you.