SEVERAL YEARS AGO the Lord gave me a clear visual image of His plan for each of us in the Church. He said to me, “The work that I have for the Body of Christ to do is like putting together a beautiful puzzle.”
Have you ever put together a puzzle? There are so many pieces, but you have to put it together piece by piece. And it takes every one of those pieces to make the puzzle form a beautiful picture.
If you’ve ever struggled to find one or two missing pieces, you know it can be extremely frustrating. You’re so disappointed every time you look at the puzzle. Even though everything else looks pretty, all you can see are the glaring holes where a few pieces are missing.
Sometimes I can picture the Lord as He looks at our puzzle in the Body of Christ. Even though most of the puzzle has been put together and many of us have gotten into place, I can see our Heavenly Father looking at those glaring holes in the puzzle where someone has not taken the proper position.
After the Lord gave me this visual image, He said to me, “In order for what I have for the Body of Christ to be accomplished on this earth, every person has a piece of the puzzle. It’s important that each of you takes your piece of the puzzle and accomplishes My will for your life. As that happens on this earth, I am putting together a beautiful picture of My plan.”
When you think about the Body of Christ as a puzzle, you can probably picture the grass, sky, trees, and water that make up that puzzle. But we’re not just making a beautiful picture to look at. We’re making a picture for our God! And we desperately need the people of God to pray out the grass, trees, and sky—the whole picture.
- We Are Responsible to Pray
It’s your responsibility to pray out your piece of the puzzle, and it’s my responsibility to pray out mine. And if we don’t pray out our individual parts, there’s going to be something missing. We’re going to be one of those glaring holes in God’s puzzle!
When the Lord gave me this vivid picture of what we as the Body of Christ need to accomplish on the earth, it fit perfectly with what the Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 12:27—”All of you together are the one body of Christ, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it” (TLB).
Each of us is a separate and necessary part of Christ’s Body—a separate piece of God’s puzzle. You have a part to play and so do I. And we need to understand how important each part is.
- Of course, we’re living in an age and generation when people want to let everybody else do the work while they sit back and enjoy the results. But God wants all of us to do our part.
ROMANS 12:4–5 (TLB)
4–5 Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others.
Paul says in these verses that there are many parts in our physical bodies. There’s the head. There are the arms, the shoulders, and the legs. And there are also many parts in the Body of Christ. But there shouldn’t be any competition in the Body. We each have a gift that God has given us. We each have an important part to play.
But there shouldn’t be any competition in the Body. We each have a gift that God has given us. We each have an important part to play.Lynette Hagin
Someone might think, “I’m only the little toe.” But a toe is very important. Just stub your toe or break it and see how important it is!
When something happens to your little toe, you feel it. It hurts. And it’s the same way in the Body of Christ. Each one of us is important and we each have an assignment from the Lord. You may think, “My assignment is not very important.” But it doesn’t matter if you’re the arm, the leg, the foot, or the little toe—you’re still important. And if the little toe is hurting, we need to minister to the little toe. We all need to minister to one another!
It’s Time to Step Into Our Places
In verses 6 and 7 of Romans chapter 12, the Apostle Paul continues to describe how God has created all the parts of the Body of Christ to function together.
ROMANS 12:6–7 (TLB)
6 God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, then prophesy whenever you can—as often as your faith is strong enough to receive a message from God.
7 If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. . . .
So many times we think the gift of hospitality is not as important as the gift of prophecy. But the gift of serving others is one of the most important gifts we could ever have!
ROMANS 12:7–8 (TLB)
7 . . . If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching.
8 If you are a preacher, see to it that your sermons are strong and helpful. If God has given you money, be generous in helping others with it.
God has placed each one of us in the Body of Christ for a reason, and it’s time for us to step into the place where He wants us to be. Romans 12:12 tells us, “Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and prayerful always” (TLB). The Amplified Bible Classic Edition says, “Be constant in prayer.” The New International Version tells us, “Be faithful in prayer.”
How are we going to accomplish what God has for each one of us in His divine plan? By being faithful in prayer—by praying out our piece of the puzzle. As we stay faithful in prayer to receive God’s instructions for our lives, and then we step into our rightful places, we will create a beautiful picture for Him.
Author
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Lynette Hagin
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