Your place in this world

August 13, 2007

By Jerry Scott

Do you want to be a happy person, effective and fulfilled? A key is self-acceptance — learning who you are, what you are capable of doing, which spiritual gifts God has invested in you, and how to function well in the situations in which you find yourself. This kind of personal acceptance demonstrates spiritual and emotional maturity.

Do not confuse acceptance with resignation. Some people resign themselves to being where they are but continue to wish they were someone different, living in some other place. Genuine self-acceptance leads to excellence because it brings contentment and willingness to “bloom where we are planted.”

I spent too many years wishing for things I did not have, all the while missing opportunities that surrounded me. I now pray for wisdom to know how to maximize the potential my present situation offers instead of dreaming about being someplace that looks more desirable.

In John’s Gospel we read about a man who knew what God wanted him to be. His name was John the Baptist. As Jesus became better known and the crowds following Him grew, some of John’s followers went to John and said, “Everybody is going to Him instead of coming to us.”

Imagine if John had allowed jealousy to fill his heart. What if he had changed his message or methods to try to lure the people back? It would have been tempting to want to continue to enjoy the success he had known when multitudes came to hear him preach. But there is none of that in this servant of God. His humility and his acceptance should inspire us.

Take a look. “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” (John 3:27-30, NLT).

Will you rejoice in the success of another? Will you accept the place God has given you today?

If you begin to compare yourself to someone else, if you allow yourself to believe that happiness would come if you owned another’s place, you break the 10th Commandment, which says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17, NIV). James warns about the sorrowful outcome that is inevitable with envy: “For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind” (James 3:16, NLT).

What has God given you? Where has He placed you? Receive it and take the opportunities that come with it. Work to maximize your effectiveness, to develop your skills, to be God’s person right where you are. There is great joy in that choice — for you and for all who are around you.

Paul, writing to a younger preacher named Timothy, urged him to avoid the trap of fighting with others to be “top dog,” and about the lure of having more. He said, “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6, NIV).

Let the Lord use you — starting right where you are, just as you are. Faithfulness today leads to tomorrow’s promotion!

Jerry D. Scott is senior pastor of Washington (N.J.) Assembly of God.