Prepare Your Heart in Hopeful Waiting This Advent
The People God Sends Us We are Uniquely Fit to Serve
Photo By: Flickr/Mr B
Do you ever find that the people you encounter, who God puts into your life, need exactly what you can provide? And do you ever notice the opposite -- that the people God puts into your life provide exactly what you need?
I've had an influx of these situations over the last month or two. An increasing number of people coming to the aid of spiritually guiding and companioning me in specific ways, and an influx of people coming to me for guidance or help. They all feel God-sent.
Through those relationships, I'm becoming more convinced that God sends us the right people at the right time to help and guide us, and He also sends people to us whom we are uniquely fit to serve and minister to. We have the right experiences and insights to help them navigate whatever they are going through.
The wisdom they give us, and the wisdom we give them, fit uniquely to our need.
A wise religious sister once told me, "We are drawn like a magnet to the people who help us get where we need to go." How true that is -- when I reflect on my own journey, the people I have been most magnetically drawn to have played a critical role in my life and been the voice of God leading me to my next step. God will draw us to the right people who help us get from point A to point B in the spiritual journey.
The fruits of those interactions will tell us if these are people we need to stick by on the journey. Did those interactions help us? Did they reveal a truth we can apply to our life? What happened after those interactions? Did God confirm or reinforce those messages and insights in other ways? Did you hear God's voice in that person? That's how we can tell if God put that person into our life for a reason.
And likewise, when we serve or minister to others: Was the interaction life-giving to the other person? Did your insight or wisdom resonate or speak to them in some way? Did they feel God's presence and hand in the situation -- or hear His voice? Did you receive some gift from the interaction? Because all ministry gifts us in some way too.
We may not be fit perfectly to minister to everyone, but we are fit perfectly to minister to those God sends us, and others are fit perfectly to minister to us. And rest assured, He will give us everything we need to do that through the Holy Spirit.
About the Author
Katie Zalany lives in Cleveland Ohio. She is a Third Order Secular Franciscan (OFS), spiritual director, benefits/wellness leader, and certified health and life coach. She volunteers with St. Vincent de Paul Society serving the poor, is an active mentor to many individuals, and a prolific writer. Her writing interests and focus areas include spiritual development, reflections on the Gospel life, Franciscian spirituality, prayer, and integration of faith and work/daily living. She is the published author of Called to Corporate: Lessons of Growing in Faith and Holiness from the Corporate Cubicle.
