It’s In There!

II Timothy 1:6-7 (NKJV)

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

For me, the year 2013 was, for a lack of better terms, meh.

Although I experienced amazing victories like graduating from seminary, fully embracing my call and being comfortable with who God created me to be, I also spent way too much time feeling confused and defeated because life wasn’t going the way I’d hoped.

My problem was that I had spent too much time feeling like I had to have the affirmation and/or validation of others ( family, friends, church, etc.) to completely walk into everything God has for me. I actively sought God during the year for direction, developed a plan and set several goals to bring it to completion. Still it seemed that I couldn’t possibly be used by God because people couldn’t see what God saw…

Makes perfect nonsense, right?

I allowed this nonsense; this state of confusion and lack of human validation to keep me in a state of spiritual paralysis when it came to using my gifts and talents to build the Kingdom of God.

I was miserable.

It seemed as if everything in my life (ministry, career advancement, social life, etc.) was on hold and I couldn’t figure out why. Hours, days, weeks and months had passed and I was no closer to seeing my dreams come to pass than when the year started. Praying about these issues seemed so hard because I could never find the right combination of words to express how I truly felt. It began to feel as if God was ignoring me and never really had a plan for my life.

Like I said, perfect nonsense.

Toward the end of the year of meh 2013, God began using several scriptures to speak to my heart. Out of all of them, II Timothy 1:6-7 spoke the loudest.

Reading this text reminded me of an old commercial for Prego Spaghetti Sauce. In the commercial, a father teases his son on his daughter-in-law’s use of store brought spaghetti sauce just six months into their marriage. Seemingly unconcerned by his daughter-in law being within earshot of the conversation, the father begins to school his son on the ingredients of a successful marriage:

1. Garlic

2. Little bits of herbs and onions for that homemade taste

3. and most importantly, love.

Each time the father mentions an ingredient, his son gently stirs the sauce and says, “It’s in there!”

After tasting the sauce, his father was fully convinced that his son was telling the truth.

II Timothy 1 has some things in common with this commercial. This text also begins with Paul, Timothy’s spiritual father, reminding Timothy of the ingredients that he already possessed to become who God called him to be.

Ingredients like:

1. the faith of his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois,

2. a special spiritual gifting acquired by the laying on of hands, and

3. the Holy Spirit’s endowment of power, love and a sound mind.

It was time for young Timothy to abandon fear and timidity and stir up the gift God had placed inside of him.

Reading these verses helped me tremendously.

The only way others will see that you have been gifted and called for God’s service is if you stir up the gift his Spirit has placed inside of you.

God has given you all of the ingredients necessary to further his Kingdom and display his glory in the earth.

It’s time to abandon fear and timidity. Stop waiting for others to affirm your gifting. Stop acting as if once they say, “Oh yeah, I see it now!  You are called, anointed, gifted and talented!”, that it makes you more usable in the eyes of God.

No, God wants to use you now. Other people’s opinion of your gift is not the standard. God’s affirmation and validation is what matters. God’s plan for your life has nothing to do with them. The gift that lives inside of you was planted there by God. You, not them, will be held accountable for what you did with that gift so stir it up! The world is waiting for a taste. And once you begin to stir up the gift the whole world will see, just like Prego,

“It’s in there!”

And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against? -Chris Tomlin, Our God.