It’s time to make a difference. You have a gift from God meant to touch others. So please get on with it. Bring some warmth to a cold world. Turn on lights. Offer love to hungry hearts.

How do you get started?

Two steps for making a difference

Here are two key steps. First, learn what you have to offer. Then step out and give it to others. And please don’t waste time. You’re needed!

Learn what you have to offer

Let’s start with this truth. All of us who know Jesus are made to be rivers, not reservoirs. We have God’s impulse to give rather than to receive because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). And that love not only comes to us. It’s meant to pour through us to others who need us. So please get started!

There’s more to it. God the Father created us with hearts to respond to his Son. And if we let Jesus have access to our hearts we soon discover more of what we’re made for. We love others because he first loved us. And as we respond to the Son we’re increasingly set free from our selfish fears and doubts. We start to have eyes to see what others need.

Christ’s Spirit is in you, so do this. Ask him for wisdom. Ask him for eyes to see what a friend or neighbor might need. A need you can meet. Let him be your coach. And follow up any particular opportunity he brings to mind.

For most of us this may be easier said than done! So let’s think it through. First it calls for faith: for a confidence that Christ’s Spirit is both listening and ready to act. Even more than that, it’s a confidence that God is encouraging you to follow his example: “For God so loved the world that he gave…”

It means you should expect an answer to your prayer! The Spirit is sure to act.

Yet we may need to be very honest here. We may have prayed in the past without getting any answers. You prayed for a dying friend to be healed but he died anyway. Or prayed for a job and nothing came of it. And so on. Let’s call these our “meet-my-needs” prayers. They’re efforts to get God to do what we want. And while I’m sure there’s a time and place for such prayers it’s not what we’re talking about right now.

Instead we’re praying for something closely aligned with God’s ambitions. He’s not slow to respond to certain types of prayer. But we may be slow to ask him!

Share it with others

Here’s what I mean. Ask him how you can love others. See what he wants to do for someone through you. And then be ready to give away a part of your heart.

God, after all, has created us for “good works”—see Ephesians 2:10—and has uniquely gifted each of us to make a difference. Ephesians 4 offers this lesson: “every joint” in Christ’s body has a role to play. Each of us can make “the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

So the prayer goes like this: “Oh Lord, how can I offer myself to someone today? Who needs to feel your love through my actions?”

He might stir you to make a phone call to a friend who will be encouraged to hear from you. Or, better, you can set up a meeting. A visit aimed at building your friendship. We all have lots of loose connections—our hit-and-run texts or tweets—but most of us need something deeper and stronger. Real care can be very scarce these days.

Then ask the Lord to bring to mind something that might touch a heart.

Here are a couple of questions that usually work. The first is, “What’s encouraged you today?” And the second then follows: “And what’s your biggest challenge?”

I promise you that if you’re honest in asking, and willing to take time to listen, you may have a two or three hour conversation on your hands! Everyone needs a friend who cares enough to ask these questions. It’s a great heart exercise!

But let the Lord be your coach. Ask him for some ideas and see what comes to mind. You might have a face show up—maybe an elderly person who needs some home help. Or you might feel a simple impulse to make some cookies as holiday gifts to give to some neighbors!

What we can be sure of is this: God made us with an impulse to share. It’s part of our spiritual DNA, of being made in God’s image. God is love, and he made us with an instinct and ability to go out and love others.

Try it. I know you’ll like it. And so will those who receive whatever you—and any of your friends—are willing to share! Then do it again. And again. It’s called learning to love!