For those who have attended the Pastor’s Study the last six Wednesday nights, we have just finished discovering our PLACE in life and ministry.
PLACE stands for:
Personality Discovery
Learning Spiritual Gifts
Abilities Awareness
Connecting Passion with Ministry
Experiences of Life
I’ve commented on several of these areas, but today I want to focus on our life experiences, and how God desires to use those (whether good, bad or ugly) so that we can minister to others.
In the PLACE workbook, author Jay McSwain lists five types of life experiences.
- Spiritual—experiences when God has moved in a significant, special and life-altering way
- Religious Educational—experiences and opportunities you’ve had to learn about God through church, Bible studies, traditions, etc.
- Painful—experiences that have been hurtful
- Failure—times when you have failed, and the lessons learned from those failures
- Victorious experiences—times and experiences when you have overcome difficulties, temptations, hurts, sins, etc.
I want to encourage you to think through the experiences you’ve had in your life that God might want to use. Think through each of these five types of life experiences and remember God’s faithfulness, presence and purpose in each of those situations. Ask God to remind you of those experiences, and to use them as He sees fit. Remember the promise of Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Your experiences are uniquely yours…let God use them to bless, encourage, inspire, challenge and comfort others.