ARE YOU A CHICKEN OR AN EAGLE?

One day a farmer’s son went for a hike in the nearby mountains and almost at the top of the mountain he found and eagle’s nest with some eggs in it. On a whim he decided to take one of the eggs out of the nest, take it back to the farm and put the egg under one of the hens that was hatching her eggs.

Wrapping the egg up carefully in his backpack he started back to the farm immediately. When he got to the farm the boy found a broody hen and placed the eagle’s egg under the chicken.

Well a chicken can’t tell the difference between an eagle’s egg and one of her own eggs so as time went by the eggs all hatched. At first, the eagle chick also did not think it was any different from the other chicks and it followed the mother hen around, scratching in the dirt and eating chicken food like any good chick should and he was content to be with the chickens.

But as time went past and as the young eagle started to grow, he felt strange stirrings within himself. He began to think that there was more to him than being a chicken. But for a long time he did not do anything about how he felt until one day he saw an eagle flying over the chicken pen. “That’s what I should be”, he said to himself.

And although the young eagle had never flown in his life before, he felt the strength in his wings and with the thought that the chicken pen was not for him, he spread his wings and took off and soared away into the sky.

I am sure that I am not alone in hearing this story and realising that there are couple of things here that I can compare to my own life.

“Not today”

I know that I am different and that God is working in my life but I am holding myself back and making excuses. I have allowed procrastination to guide my life; it’s easier to put things off because I fear the unknown. I justify this by saying to myself “I will think about making a decision tomorrow”.

Acts 22:14 to 16

Then he said, “The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and was you sins away, calling on his name.”

God has called us and empowered us to be his servant. We cannot continue to put things off and deny what Jesus has done in our lives.

Here are some basic principles to think about.

• For as long as we continue to think of ourselves as being small and of no significance in the world, then we shall carry on remaining where we are.

• We have been chosen by God to be his witness and we have no reason to doubt God’s power to enable us to do his work.

• We need to realize that once we have accepted Christ in our lives, he will provide us with everything we need to do his work.

“I am not strong enough - I am afraid I will fail”

I Corinthians 1:26 to 27

Brothers, think what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

There is a very powerful principal at work here and our thinking needs to change and we need to accept that we no longer have to “measure” ourselves to the worldly standards.

God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. The world may consider that Christians are foolish but it is these self same “foolish” people who will expose their critics as being the real fools.

God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. The world may consider that Christians are weak and ineffectual; this tactic of directing attention away from their own shortcomings will lead to their downfall.

So what must we do? How do we start?

1. Discover you’re potential.

§ What gifts has God given you? Try doing things, which you might have not dared to do until now, you may find that you are pleasantly surprised. You might make some mistakes in the beginning but as you gain more experience you will become more confident.

2. Dedicate your potential to God.

§ If God has chosen us then surely he is the best judge of what you can achieve?

§ Pray about what you want to do.

§ Make God a very important part of everything you do.

3. Develop your potential.

§ Develop a positive self-image. Stop measuring yourself against worldly standards and let God be your mentor.

§ Accept responsibility for developing your potential. Plan the work and work the plan.

§ God does not mind you making mistakes because that is how you learn.

§ Use other Christians to guide you and mentor you.

§ Remember that what you do with God’s gifts to you is your gift to God.

Finally and most importantly – use and exercise the gift or gifts that God has given you.