SELF ACCEPTANCE;Personalities

I have been part of the Bible study fellowship  (BSF) ,  BSF is an in-depth, interdenominational Bible study that helps people know God and equips them to effectively serve the Church throughout the world.(I copy pasted this from their website). I joined in when the study was on the book of John and it was as if I have never read it before, the small details I had just read through before were now the details that made me understand Jesus and His disciples in a whole new way!

So what has BSF have to do with the topic 'Personalities?'....well like I said I got to understand the disciples and their different personalities and how they were used by Christ. 
What made me to want to write about this is? I was in a meeting and the chairperson asked people to share their prayer requests and one lady went like..'I am an introvert and I want you guys to pray for me to change and be different'...well for me that hurt, why? Because the society has somehow made it seem as if it is wrong/boring/inadequate to be an introvert and for me I did not pray for that lady to change but for her to see the beauty of the personality God gave her..because everything God does is well planned and on purpose.....

Sorry, back to the disciples....there are a few characters that stood out for me in the book of John, and this is why....


#1 Peter
So this guy was impulsive! When the people came to arrest Jesus, he took out his sword and cut a soldier's ear without even thinking twice about it....(John 18:10)
He was quick to tell Jesus that he would lay down his life for him when Jesus asked him if he loved him even without thinking about his statement and Jesus told Him that He would deny Him..(John 13:36-38)
When they heard that Jesus resurrected, he ran to the tomb with John and he was the first to go in as John paused outside the tomb...( John 20)
When Jesus appeared to the disciples as they were fishing,and John told Him that it was indeed Jesus, he swam to the shore and left the other disciples in the boat...(I found this funny as they got to the shore around the same time)....(John 21:1-14)

He clearly never thought through his actions and I found it hilarious because he reminded me of myself and how that quality has gotten me into trouble a few times..okay..alot of times.

At the end of the book, we see Jesus reinstating  him and asking him to feed and take care of His sheep, and we see of the great things he did after this in the book of Acts and how he died for the gospel.

#2 Thomas

He was the cautious guy, the one who had to take calculated risks...

When Lazarus died and Jesus told His disciples that they will go back to Judea, they were all afraid because, the people there had already tried to kill him but when Jesus insisted that they should go back and somehow assured them they will be fine, Thomas told the other disciples that..'Let us go so that we may die with Him'....it was like Jesus never said anything, He still believed they would die because there was no proof that they would be okay....

After Jesus resurrected, He appeared to His disciples and Thomas was not present, so when they told Him that they had seen Jesus, he did not believe them and said that unless he would see His wounds then he would believe,,,,and indeed Jesus showed them to Him and He believed...

For Thomas, seeing was believing and he needed proof of things before he would make his move......despite Him doubting that Jesus rose from the dead even after Jesus had told them that He would, Jesus did not condemn Him but gave him the exact proof he had asked for inorder to assure Him that He is alive....

These two men had two very different personalities, probably you would say, Peter was an extrovert while Thomas was an introvert. 

Thing is, Jesus knew this about them even before He chose them to be His disciples because He knew they possess different strengths and weaknesses. Thomas was unlikely to get into trouble while Peter was very likely to get into trouble and they both had their moments where their personalities 'failed' them as disciples but Jesus showed grace to them.

Truth is, the personality God has given you, makes you have certain weaknesses and strengths that are placed in you on purpose and especially for the purpose of serving Him. So whether extroverted/introverted, you are magnificently designed by God to fulfill a specific purpose on this earth.

You are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made...