How to use your potential

How to use your potential

written by Willemien October 4, 2018

Do you like to eat a salad? And do you put seeds in it? Healthy and tasty pine nuts, pumpkin seeds etc. But by eating these seeds, we don’t let them come to their full potential.

Full of potential

If we instead of eating them would put them in the soil, they would grow and become trees, plants and they would bear fruit or new nuts or seeds, we could harvest them every year, sell it or give it away. When you think of it, it is quite a shame to eat them while they could produce something much more. When you look at a pine nut or you put them in your mouth, you don’t often think of all the potential the nut had, you just enjoy the taste. But when you stop and think of it, it’s quite remarkable that such a small seed or nut contains all that is needed to become something so big as a tree plant.

It is a waste to not use something for the goal it is created for.

As a teacher, I often say to children it is a waste to use a little piece of a sheet of paper and throw the rest in the paper bin. It is a waste to throw perfectly good tasting food in the garbage bin, it is a waste to let your car stand in the driveway and never use it. It is a waste to not use something for the goal it is created for.

Created for good works

Isn’t it the same with us? We are like that little seed. Look in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.”
God created us, and He did so with a goal. He knew and planned in advance the work we were supposed to do, so He knew what was needed to complete this work and so all that is needed He put in you. All the potential is within you just like the pine nut. Maybe for you, it doesn’t look so big, maybe you can’t see so far ahead, but God knows the plans He has for you. He knows what He intended for you to do and to be, and all that is required for the job He put it in you.

What would you fight for?

So what is it? What does “reaching your full potential” mean in your case? In your life? I believe God has already given you a dream, something you are passionate about, something that makes your heart beat faster. Something (you probably) think that will never happen or isn’t possible. Cause if you told that pine nut he had the ability to grow into a huge tree, he would probably laugh at you and say: ’Who me? Impossible, I’m much too small and too insignificant.” But if you had all the resources in the world, what would you do? The answer to that question will show you a piece of your heart. What are you ready to fight for?

No one else could do the things you were created for.

My heart beats for African children, for sharing the Gospel, teaching Gods word. Others are passionate about the middle-east, the people of Israel, stopping human trafficking, serving others, cleaning, building a business, organizing events, sports, and the list goes on. It can be anything! That is the beauty of our Creator, He made a person for everything you can think of. Not one of us is the same, so no one else could do the things you were created for.

Your calling, your potential

When I was a missionary in Africa people would tell me how they could never do what I was doing. At first, I didn’t understand, I mean I was living the dream! Who wouldn’t want to work there and do what I did…. But then I read that the moment you think that exact thought, it is because it is your calling, your dream, your passion. God has another work prepared for others, so they don’t have to be enthusiastic about the same things as you. No, everybody should use their potential to the best of their ability in the place that God has prepared for them. That is what will bring glory to God.

Everybody should use their potential to the best of their ability. That is what will bring glory to God.

Let us do what God has prepared for us and trust that all the potential needed is inside us and will glorify our Maker.

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