What are you qualified to do?

If someone asks me a medical question about the heart, I am not qualified to answer.

A cardiac nurse is qualified to answer.

I am also not qualified to be a first responder, tutor someone in Spanish, build a house, deliver mail, train horses, or drive a race car. Each of these things require education, certification or licenses in order to deem me “qualified.”

In the world, a third-party decides whether we are qualified.

The Board of Regents in my state has determined that I am qualified to teach specific courses, and only those courses. I am not qualified to do very much in the world’s system! And neither are you.

In the Kingdom of God, God decides whether we are qualified.

I was struck by this reality recently when reading Colossians 1:9-14: 9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom [Christ] we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

God qualifies us through the work of His Son. In Christ, our list of qualifications is extensive, humbling and far longer than the world’s system grants us! In Christ, we are qualified:

• to call the Creator of the world our Father (John 1:12)
• to approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)
• to be lights of the earth (Matthew 5:13-14)
• to enter heaven (Philippians 3:20)
• to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16)
• to bear fruit with our lives (John 15:16)
• to be a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)
• to be forgiven (Colossians 1:14)
• to be an ambassador for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:20)
• and the list goes on…

ONLY in Christ are we are qualified for the items in the list above, for Apart from Him, we can do nothing. (John 15:5) How does this apply to our normal day? Like you, I can leave my house today with my head held high because of the unbelievably important role I play on earth. How amazing. You and I have been granted qualifications from God that are not achievable in the world and we did not earn! Christ earned them for us. While out in public spaces like the grocery store, you and I pass by people with qualifications from the world that far exceed our own, but they don’t have qualifications in the kingdom of God.

May our hearts respond in two ways.

First, let these realities break our hearts. The grocery store scenario is heartbreaking. Some people have qualifications from the world without any qualifications in the Kingdom of God, at least not yet. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? (Mark 8:36) We must be sure to live out our qualifications as ambassadors and be used to grow the size of heaven!

Second, let these realities keep us humble. None of us decided to enroll in Christianity courses, so to speak, and get a degree that qualified us for the Kingdom of God. No, we must never forget we were living in a domain of darkness with no way out until God rescued us through Jesus and transferred us into a kingdom of light. We take no credit for our heavenly qualifications.

Let’s be inspired.

Nurses, teachers, tutors, first responders, accountants, welders, and occupational therapists are immensely valuable to our society. The challenge for us members of the body of Christ is to make sure we are living out our qualifications as Christ followers with as much skill, long hours, integrity, heart and grit as those deemed qualified by the world.

Let’s rise to the challenge.

Picture Explanation: Without such people, we would have no one to fix eyes, broken arms, hearts or cuts. We are freshly inspired to live our lives at the caliber we see others are living for the benefit of others.

Folks, we can’t take anything with us at the end of our lives. We can only leave the influence we have had on the lives of others. Let’s work really hard at it!

Want to be in a bible study this summer?

Speaking of living out our qualifications as children of God: If you are interested in participating in an online One Gritty Blink Bible study this summer, click on the Oaks Ministries link below and send me an email so I can place you on a list to be contacted as online and face-to-face studies are planned. Let’s not just focus on things in this short life, but also what counts for eternity.

Note: No part of my posts are derived from A.I. Thoughts and writing stem from my mind and heart as I process life week-by-week and continue to grow in my understanding of God and how to apply His wisdom to the world around me.

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