God’s Toolbox

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4–7)

When you look in a regular toolbox, you find many different kinds of tools, each one designed for a specific purpose. Inside a typical toolbox you may find a hammer, screwdriver, small saw, tape measure, or even a level of some kind. Each tool has a specific purpose. Using them for something other than the purpose they have been designed for usually results in failure. The same is true for us as Christians. Each one of us is a tool in God’s toolbox. We have been designed in a specific way for a specific purpose and we need to figure out what that purpose is. The Converterlator says, “I want Christ to live and work through me. Here I am, a special person, uniquely gifted by God, designed for a special purpose, and more specifically to do good works that God has created for me to do.”

It’s important that we understand what each tool is designed to do and then use it in the way it is designed. You can’t really evaluate the effectiveness of a tool if you don’t know what it is supposed to accomplish. It may look pretty. It may be intriguing. It may look like it has great strength. But you can’t judge the excellence of its design until you actually use it.

We experience God’s best for us and have the most significance when we move in faith to find God’s purposes for using the talents (tools) he has given us.

Even though we may think our time, talent, and/or treasure is small or insignificant, God can take them and exponentially multiply them for the advancement of his kingdom. We learn a tremendous Kingdom of God principle from the small boy in the New Testament who gave his two small fish and five barley loaves of bread to Jesus. “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9). The disciple Andrew questions how so little can be relevant when they were trying to figure out how to feed a multitude of people. But Jesus took that little boy’s offering, which was insignificant in the eyes of the world, and miraculously used it to feed 5,000 people!

Each one of us needs to be a “five loaves and two fish” person, willing to share so Jesus can do great things through us when we make ourselves available to him. This little boy’s life echoes through eternity because he was willing to share what he had and yield himself to the purposes of God. No matter what kind of tool we are, we need to be available to God! God created us and has given us life. He orchestrates all that we do and we need to cooperate with him in every way.

What specific talents or abilities do you have? How are you using those abilities to converterlate your resources?

Converterlators understand that they are uniquely gifted by God to do the good works that he has created for them to do.