Your Limitations as a Leadership Tool

God will not only use your gifts to fulfill your destiny, He will also use your limitations." Rick Warren 

Don't be afraid of your limitations or your weaknesses. Don't be embarrassed or ashamed of them for they can be powerful tools for God's use. During one of my open Bible conversations (love these rare opportunities) I noticed that Gideon made it into the Hall of Fame listed in Hebrews 11. I immediately thought "God uses people who are not perfect." I revisited his story in Judges 6-8 and realized that the man was clearly dealing with fear on a regular basis but by the power of the Holy Spirit went from fearful to full of unshakable faith. If you pay attention to God's conversations with Gideon you'll notice that God knew he was afraid. He even said at one point: if you are afraid, you take a servant with you and go listen to what your enemy is talking about. What an amazing God He is: filled with love. As a wife, an expectant mother of two small kids and a business owner I tend to look a lot at my limitations. The problem with that is the paralyzes it brings to my walk of faith. Esther would be paralyzed if she looked all the odds against her (orphan, minority, single), but still, "The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti." (Esther 2:17 NKJV) Embrace the fact that you are and always will have some kind of limitation my friend. God wouldn't let Gideon conquer his enemies with 22,000 men for they would claim glory for themselves against God saying "my own hand has saved me." (Judges 7:2) God trickled that number down to 300 and made His name famous and glorious. Embrace a God who uniquely created you to fulfill a destiny that does not stop because of the constraints of life. See your limits as God's possibilities to bring enormous glory to His name through you. 

And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon ... out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. (Hebrews 11:32, 34 NKJV)