Strengths are primarily talents or abilities and ways of thinking and processing information that you are born with or develop at a very early age, plus a little bit of experience.   Since they are a part of how your brain naturally works, you cannot easily trade in your strengths for other strengths.  And why would you want to?  God made you to be uniquely you, and there is no one else like you.

1. Our strengths are the raw materials for our Spiritual gifts.

Commonsense and experience tell us that God does not give us Spiritual gifts that are at odds with our strengths.  He does not, for example, give the gift of Speaking to someone who has absolutely no strength in Communication or a related strength.  Rather, God gives us Spiritual gifts that draw upon the strengths and experiences that we already have.

The apostle Paul's gift of evangelism is a good example of how God gifts us for service.  Paul was a zealous man and quite learned.  Before his conversion he used his zeal and learning to oppose God (Acts 9:!f).  At his conversion, God did not take away his zeal or learning.  Rather, God directed that zeal and learning into evangelism.  Through the Spirit he became the greatest evangelist of his time and a writer of more than a quarter of the New Testament.

2. Working within our strengths and gifts brings joy and blessing into our lives.

Understanding our uniqueness fress us to pursue ministry that uses our strengths and gifts and make our unique contributions, as God intended us to do.  Not only is this helpful for the body, it is also necessary for us to do, for our strengths are also our needs.  They are God's grace to us.  Working within our strengths and gifts also helps us to say "no" to extended service outside of our strengths and gifts so that we can serve in a way that is more fulfilling to us and the body.