Daily Journal

My good friend Jay McKinney asked me if I would like to write a journal entry to share with the team and the church. I honestly didn't think that I was that good of a writer to share something with everyone, but I nodded and told him I would do my best. Below is the journal entry. Enjoy.

1 Timothy 4: 14 & 15 “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress.”

God has a special way of showing us what gifts we have. He opens doors to create opportunities for us to use our gifts. He puts people in our lives that tell us where we are gifted. He also plants the desire to use these gifts deep within the core of our being. Timothy’s gift was preaching and teaching others about Jesus. He had to use his gifts if he was going to be successful. He had to stay strong in the word. But most of all, he had to focus on his strengths.

Being a young man myself, I have to say that sometimes it’s a little hard to focus on just one thing. There are times when there are so many things going on in my life. How is my wife doing? What’s it going to be like to be a dad? What do I have to do for work? What’s on TV? Did I remember to feed the fish? The sad thing is that most of the time my life is so cluttered, I look back and say, “That was OK.”

OK? Isn’t that just a term for all right, not bad, or fine? Wouldn’t it be better if I ended the day saying, “That was AWESOME!”?

This is the way God wants us to feel after we have spent some time using our gifts. He wants us to feel completely confident that everything was great, not good. But we can only do this if we “give ourselves wholly” to our gifts. It’s then that we’ll really start to see the fireworks. When we start to focus, God will start using our gifts in more ways than we can imagine.