Our work in the body of Christ is measured by the gift of faith, not our feelings of success.

By clicking on this SoundCloud link you can listen to today’s PWTE devotion

“Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” 
Romans 12:3-5 New Living Translation

Pucallpa, Peru

This man building a boat on the shore of the Ucayali River reminds me of my brother, Tom. I mentioned my brother in a blog I wrote a few year’s back. Tom built a row boat, drift boat and a kayak while he was in high school. I didn’t take any shop classes in high school but I did built a key holder out of a single piece of pressed wood in junior high. Need I say more?

Yet because of how God has gifted my brother I would never want to put him in the position of being a pastor. This is how God has gifted me.

I might fantasize about building boats and Tom might fantasize about being a pastor, but we cannot be everything to everyone.

This is not to say that we have used our gifts perfectly. Those of you whom I have pastored know that I haven’t always used my gifts in accord with Christ’s command. Likewise, my brother has had failed projects. We are called not to rejoice in our successes or wallow in our failures, but to do whatever we do through the gift of faith God has graciously given us.

God calls us to use the gifts he has given us trusting that he will bring about his desired results. He hasn’t called us to daydream about being someone we’re not. He wakes us every morning to live the life set before us with the faith to believe that he is at work in us.

Successes and failures are not the measure of life. The gift of faith which believes that God is working through us in spite of our failures and successes is the true measure of life.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner