{"id":136,"date":"2010-01-28T17:19:08","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T22:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=136"},"modified":"2013-06-26T11:30:26","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T15:30:26","slug":"good-at-good-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=136","title":{"rendered":"Good at & Good for"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I will run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”<\/em> (Psalm 119:32, NIV)<\/p>\n

We all want to figure out what God wants from us.\u00a0 What is His will for my life?\u00a0 What does He require of me?\u00a0 What ought I to be and do?<\/p>\n

In pursuit of answers to these kinds of questions we each must consider not only what God has made me good at<\/em>, but also what has God made me good for<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The answer to the former is found in discerning what God has done in imparting to you spiritual gifts, natural talents, and shaping experiences.\u00a0 Figuring out what you are good at<\/em> is a matter of competency and skill.\u00a0 You might be good at car repair, football, sewing, computers, baking, nuclear physics, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The answer to the latter is found in discovering and discerning what God has done in shaping your heart.\u00a0 Discovering what you are good for<\/em> is a matter of calling and character.\u00a0 It is harder to quantify this isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 In fact it might be easier to describe what you are no good for<\/em> \u2013 things for which you just don\u2019t have the heart and for which you just can\u2019t sustain the passion.<\/p>\n

What you are good at<\/em>, we might say, is a matter of the hands<\/em>.\u00a0 What you are good for<\/em> is a matter of the heart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Both are vital.\u00a0 But it seems to me that a person might be good at<\/em> certain things, but also only good for<\/em> doing those things in a certain arena or for a certain cause or purpose.\u00a0 You can use gifts, talents and the like for<\/em> many things.\u00a0 After all a great writer could compose cheap and bawdy literature that debases the human soul or she could write with style and substance that imparts life and hope to her readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What you are good for<\/em> has to define and direct what you are good at<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A person who has discovered what God has made them good at<\/em> is a person who has direction and a future to pursue.\u00a0 But a person who has also discovered what he is good for<\/em> finds the field of possibilities drastically narrowed\u2014not because he doesn\u2019t possess the skill for some matters, but because God has \u201cspoiled\u201d his heart for anything other than what He has made him for<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are you asking more questions about what you are good at<\/em> or good for<\/em>?\u00a0 Some people would settle to know what they are good at<\/em>.\u00a0 They would love to be the best in the world (or even in their school or family or on their block) at<\/em> something.\u00a0 But that can be an ego-driven matter.\u00a0 We need to know what God has made us good at<\/em>, but we can\u2019t stop there.\u00a0 We must know what God has made us good for<\/em>.\u00a0 Because then we can not only do our best, we can do it for the glory of God and with all the passion and purpose for which He gave the abilities in the first place.\u00a0 When we discover what we are good for<\/em> we begin to transition from just \u201cdoing\u201d to enjoying our \u201cdoing\u201d as doxology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I will run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.” (Psalm 119:32, NIV) We all want to figure out what God wants from us.\u00a0 What is His will for my life?\u00a0 What does He require of me?\u00a0 What ought I to be and do? In pursuit of answers to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalms","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-2c","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1635,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/1635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}