Discover Your Place in God's Family

Families come in about as many varieties as Baskin Robbins’ ice cream—all sizes, colors, and shapes.  Scattered across the earth, these families speak several thousand diverse languages, and live in every imaginable dwelling type. But no matter how varied the families or lifestyles of the world’s people, if they are believers in our Lord Jesus, they are all in God’s family.
And as part of God’s family, each individual has a special place.   

 That’s certainly encouraging to know, but how can we possibly figure out our specific role with innumerable family members dispersed around the globe?  Obviously the first step in discovering our position in God’s family must be (1) to join with a local church family. The importance of belonging to a local body is illustrated frequently in scripture through the analogy of Jesus as the Shepherd, with His followers being His sheep. Jesus wants us to remain close knit in our church family, like sheep in their flock. Sheep need to be guided and protected. They are defenseless without a shepherd to care for them—leading them to water, to green pastures—and protecting them from predators. 

An isolated Christian is as vulnerable as a lone sheep. If we are not in a flock of believers, we are not protected by the love, prayers, and encouragement of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Nor are we being continuously renewed by hearing the Word taught and worshipping with fellow believers. So the local church is a mandatory first step in finding our place.

Subsequently, after becoming a part of the local body of Christ, the next step in discovering our niche in God’s family consists of (2) discovering God’s specific purpose for us in His family. Finding a local church will strengthen our faith as we grow in knowledge of God’s Word. But there is still more God desires for us. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”(Eph. 2:10) Thus, when we find those divinely-preordained tasks, we find our place/purpose in God’s family. 

If we are not church leaders who felt “God’s calling” for that position, then sometimes it takes awhile to find our place.  To help find it, we can (A) Seek God’s direction through prayer and scripture (B) Inquire about needs in the church we could meet (C) Determine the abilities and talents God has given us and find where those can be used (D) Think about what we enjoy doing that can benefit God’s family:  Kid lover? Find a place in the nursery or children’s SS; Handy at yard work or home repairs? Help a senior or single mom;  An encourager? Visit nursing homes or shut-ins…  (E) Try a variety of different opportunities to discover your calling, or brainstorm to create a service/ministry that your church doesn’t have yet. Once we discover the area God has planned for us in His family, we’ll know the fulfillment and joy there is in obeying Jesus’ command, “Feed my sheep” (John 2:17).