May 8, 2024

I have often thought and wondered, Lord, what is Your will for my life? During the first years of my walk with God, this question often occurred to me, but I was still far too busy with all kinds of other things in my life. I mainly lived with one foot in the world. At that point, God was mainly concerned with setting me free from all the things of the world and getting my focus completely on Him, and it was because of all those things that I hadn’t really gotten around to ask myself: What are my gifts and talents actually? Who exactly am I, and what do I like? /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 30-04-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} What exactly are my gifts and talents? October 2023 I ended up in a beautiful church. After a while, I noticed that I felt a little intimidated by the many talented brothers and sisters who were there and what wonderful things they were doing for the Lord. For a moment, I felt like a “not quite”. I really enjoyed seeing how these brothers and sisters are so talented, and how everything they do is a success. Wonderful! But I had a moment when it made me feel insecure, and I asked God, “What do You want me to do for You? What is Your will for my life? And what exactly are my gifts and talents? I also immediately knew that this insecurity was my flesh, and that is no longer who I am in the Spirit. So I took these uncertain thoughts captive and subordinated them to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  I know who I am, and that is first and foremost a daughter of the Most High, so there is no room for uncertainty in my life. I started to “rethink,” as we say in the Netherlands. Look at things from a different angle. Instead of feeling intimidated by all the beautiful and talented brothers and sisters at church, I thought about using them as inspiration and not feeling insecure. My dear friend pointed out to me that it doesn’t matter whether you can do ‘big things’ for God or ‘just’ be a light at work or in your family. God places you exactly where He wants you and in His time. Everyone is valuable. Of course, I knew this in my heart, but it was nice that she encouraged me with this again. It didn’t take long before I received answers from God to my questions. Relax He showed me that one of my talents is writing and that I am creative, and soon this blog came into the world. It gives me great joy to write about God and to share this with you! Encouraging people by telling them about all my adventures with God is an enormous honor for me! I get to build people up, and I am reminded of it again and again through my own texts, how good God is in my life. But I received the best answer recently at college. There was a guest speaker from France present, and his testimony relates precisely to my questions: What is God’s will for my life? He told us that we didn’t have to do anything at all! We can just relax in His presence because ultimately His will for our lives is to have a relationship with Him, to have intimacy with Him, and to know Him! Everything else is secondary, and flows from there. We don’t have to do anything for God. Jesus says in Revelation 3:20:   “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in, and we will eat together, I with him and he with me.” That is the Lord’s desire and His purpose to make His home in our hearts and our lives. He wants to work with us on a relationship. The creation of all humanity came from God’s desire to be in relationship with us. Of course, we must be grateful for all the gifts and talents God has given us, and use them in a way that glorifies Him. But the core, the essence, is knowing Him. Everything else will flow from this after that. We can relax. Get to know Him, and His character. We don’t have to frantically look for what we can do for God. Because if we simply start building an intimate relationship with God, He will then automatically open the doors where He wants to take us and show us what our talents are, what our gifts are, and what He wants you to do with all those beautiful gifts and talents. We cannot do anything on our own. And when we try to force ourselves to start something, a project or a ministry, there is a very good chance that it will fail. Well, I can tell you, when I heard that, I relaxed a lot! And I also notice it with this blog. I never thought I would do this. Until God laid it on my heart. I then started praying about it and once it was clear to me that this was what God had put on my heart, and I started writing, it flowed. Grow in your relationship with Jesus If you are wondering what God’s will is for your life, or if you are also searching for what exactly your gifts and talents are, I would like to encourage you to initially build and grow in your relationship with Him. Discover who you are in Christ. Andrew Wommack, among others, shares many valuable lessons about our identity in Christ on YouTube. Build your relationship with the Lord. Take time for the Word and prayer, and God will show you with love what He has placed in you that you can use to help build and serve in His Kingdom. If you don’t know what it is yet,