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Question Summary:

A young person, 20 years old, expresses they are becoming filled with anxiety and have been overwhelmed with stress during the last year as they work as an apprentice. The individual feels their boss wishes them to working at a greater level of skill and speed than they are capable of doing. They have tried their best but the demands are simply not possible for them and their excessive effort results in mistakes and a product that is of low quality. Ultimately, it leads to unhappiness and personal embarrassment for this young person because they know the quality of the product they are producing is low, to the degree the product does not even function correctly. It does not seem the situation is going to get better and the person is seeking counsel about what to do. They want to know, “Do I quit?”

Reply:

You are twenty years old and your life will be much more fulfilling if you learn early in life that God created you with a specific temperament, with certain talents, with certain abilities, with certain strengths, and with certain weakness.

Most people agree with the above statement, generally, except the last part – “with certain weakness.” On that point, people like to believe they are a mini god who can do anything. Well, you cannot. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING GOD WILLS FOR YOU TO DO! This is a more scripturally accurate statement. Our weaknesses are used of God to keep us out of areas of life where we do not belong. Our strengths are used of God to cause us to excel in the areas where He wants us.

 

¹³ For You formed my inward parts;

You covered me in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Marvelous are Your works,

And that my soul knows very well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

And in Your book they all were written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them.

Psalm 139:13-16 / King David speaking

Definitions in the Hebrew Language –

possessed = formed

7069 to erect, i.e. create; to procure, by purchase, to own, possess (-or), purchase, recover, redeem

my reins = inward parts =

3629 an essential organ); fig. the mind (as the interior self)

made =

6395. to distinguish (lit. or fig.)

fashioned =

3335 (through the squeezing into shape); to mould [skeletal makeup aka mold] into a form; espec. as a potter; fig. to determine (i.e. form a resolution):— × earthen, fashion, form, frame, make (-r), potter, purpose.

God made each of us a specific way with everything we need to accomplish His Purpose for our lives. We are meant to allow God to grow us, change us, refine our character, educate us, train us, et cetera as He manifest what He placed on the inside of us before birth. We are to cooperate with this process not go against this process.

The secular world uses aptitude testing to determine what people would be good at and the Christian community has a godly version of something similar. I personal do not believe in secular aptitude testing and find it can be harmful to people because of its worldly approach. However, finding someone who understands temperaments and someone who could guide you toward the path more in line with your God given design would be wise because you should not have to struggle with your profession throughout your lifetime. That said, we all do jobs we don’t like at times out of necessity but it is not God’s plan that we remain in a situation where we are not productive, where we are unhappy, and where we expose ourselves to so much stress that the door to Satan is opened through anxiety, which is what you have described.

The truth…it may not be possible for you to get good enough at what you are currently doing to make you happy, your boss happy and to bring your stress level down to a healthy level, which does not involve anxiety. You may not have the talents and abilities for that profession but I assure you that you have the talents and abilities for the profession God ordained and desires for you. Find someone to help you figure out what that profession is and find that person soon, so you maximize the amount of your lifespan you spend within God’s Will for your life. Then once God opens a door make the change.

 

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.