You are a unique person. No one else is like you. God made you an individual with characteristics, personality, and tastes that distinguish you from every other human being who lives or has ever lived.
“Identical” twins aren’t. People who know such twins can usually tell them apart from their manner of being.
As a child of God, you have unique experiences, talents, gifts, and opportunities. No one else has lived through the exact same sequence of events. No one else has processed them like you. No one else has the same set of capabilities that you possess. No one else witnesses the same opening doors, rubs shoulders with the same set of people, sees the same potential for good.
So when you, living in God’s kingdom and enjoying all spiritual blessings in Christ, fail to use the gifts the Lord has given you and miss taking advantage of the opportunities he has set before you, the world is poorer because of it. The kingdom of God is weaker because of those unused gifts. And you are diminished in your faith and service since they lie dormant.
Use your gifts. Ask God to open doors for their use. When the chance comes, no matter how small it appears, take it. Large trees grow from small seed. Great deeds begin in small ways.
Be willing. Do not close yourself off to service in areas you think are now shut.
Someone wrote that from time to time we ought to reinvent ourselves. For the Christian, God often brings us to a point where he wants us to take new turns, learn new skills, exercise underused muscles. And he may well prod us to brush off some old gifts that were left aside.
We have our reasons. God has a greater purpose and a greater good. We think flight from service has its justification. We cite circumstances, relationships, or limitations. The Lord understands, and he still prods, calls, sends, and equips.
Fears, hurts, and failures of the past may have caused you to shrink back. Worries about the future may hang heavy over your heart. Let God heal the past. Let him take care of the future. Raise yourself up, look around at a perishing world, see the family of faith in need.
Use your gifts. To bury them is to bury yourself. You know this to be true. As you unearth your gifts, let God give you life, power, wisdom, and the motivation of his love and grace.