20% or 80%...

I was on my way to work the other day, feeling totally overwhelmed and anxious. As song came on saying "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, His anointing is empowering…" Right then peace washed over me and i knew that no matter what the day held, it was going to be ok.

When i felt the Lord leading me to do missions work, He was always very clear that no matter if it was job skills or fundraising He would always provide my every need. What a blessing it is to serve a God that is faithful and never changing!

The song i heard, the promise i was reminded of earlier this week in the car was a springboard into a conversation with a friend that very same day. Somehow we went from work stuff to the topic of tithing. We have all heard about the importance of tithing a tenth. Often i think we forget, its not just 10% that belongs to God, but everything in Heaven and Earth. Sure we tithe our earnings, maybe our devotional time with the Lord, but do we ever stop and think about the gifts the Lord gave us…are we tithing our gifts? We were all given these special things from the Lord, are we using them? Take a minute and think how different the church would be, if we tithed our God given gifts?! There would be less burn out among lay church workers, volunteers would be overflowing and there wouldn't be the saying "well you know 20% of the people do 80% of the work."

It doesn't matter what we have done in the past, what our norm is…begin to ask yourself what are the gifts and skills the Lord has placed in me. Am I sharing that with my church family? Am I giving it back to the Lord? Am I part of the 20% or the 80%? The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, His anointing it empowering, and He will ALWAYS equip us to do what He has called us to do. God has recently given me an opportunity to share a gift He put in me long ago…although i'm not always 100% confident in that gift, i can say His anointing is empowering!

So until next time…what is God empowering you to do...