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PROGRAM D-7597
Let’s think about how God uses different personalities for different reasons, so that we can understand and appreciate how we have been created, and accept others who are different from us.
Think about Peter. He was a driver-personality, with strong leadership qualities, always offering his opinions and advice and telling everyone else what to do. Remember when he contradicted Jesus about his death and crucifixion? Jesus was telling the disciples that he would be crucified and then he would rise on the third day, but Peter didn’t like that idea, so he said, “No, Lord, that will never happen to you.” Jesus rebuked him strongly and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” In his desire to take charge and make everything right, Peter was actually an instrument of the enemy and had to be rebuked.
However, that didn’t mean that his personality was a mistake; it simply meant Peter needed to have his personality controlled by the Spirit of God instead of under his own control. Think of the great changes in Peter, after the resurrection when he was Spirit filled. He was still the leader, organizing the early church, leading many to know Jesus. But now he was a servant-leader, with a loving heart and under the control of God’s Spirit. His personality was needed and used greatly.
As a Peter-type myself, I relate well to him and it comforts me greatly to see how God taught him and polished his personality. You see, Peter didn’t need a new or better personality; he needed to bring the one he had under the control of Jesus. I used to think my personality was a mistake, because it seemed to me that women should be more quiet and reserved and not always out front in leadership and blazing new trails. That was the message I seemed to get from my upbringing and culture, so I kept trying to change my personality and be like what I thought women were supposed to be like.
But God showed me that I’m not a mistake; he made me with this personality for good reasons. I must learn to appreciate the personality I have, but I must also allow God to polish it and shape it to be more like Jesus.
Have you often thought that you’ve got the wrong personality or wished you could be like other people? Maybe you’re shy and quiet and you feel you could be much more effective if you were a driver-type. When we are dissatisfied with the way God has created us, we are saying to God, “You made a mistake. This is not good.” And that is wrong, because we know that God created all things good, and that includes your personality.
He wants you to be who he created you to be, but he wants to shape your personality to be more like Jesus. Not like other people, but like Jesus.
