What are we doing?

There are many times in our Christian walk where we seem to have no idea where we are going or how we are going to get there. We seem to question whether or not we are doing what we are called to do or just going around the same old mountain, time after time. Everything that seems to happen is not what it was designed to be. We are called to ministry and to minister yet we can’t seem to get off the ground and actually get somewhere.

 

For my own part, I think it goes something like this. We are given a free will by God to do what we think is the right thing in the right way. God will not interfere with that will and lets us do whatever we want. We use our human thinking and miss the mark 99% of the time. Oh we hit the target somewhere totally by accident, but never in the bulls eye. God called us and told us to trust in Him and listen to Him and He will guide our path and give us clear direction, but that funky free will rears its ugly head and we are soon trying to do it on our own without any guidance from God. Sound familiar?

 

I have been in ministry for a long time and if I had a dollar for every time I jumped ahead of God and tried doing it my way, I would be so rich that Bill Gates would look like a pauper. I get this thought that I am sure comes from God and before you know it I think I have it figured out and away I go at a dead run leaving God in my dust. God continues to wait exactly where I took off and remains there until I realize that I have no idea what I am doing or how I am going to do it. He waits and then here I come asking for forgiveness and asking Him to show me the right way. He does and it is amazing on how simple it was.

 

This is the case for our ministry right now. We know that we are called to minister in the Philippines there is no doubt, but every time we know it is time for us to go, we start doing this or that to make it happen and not even giving God a thought. It was back in September 2014 as I sat at my computer trying to figure out a way I could raise money for our next trip in July 2015 when I had the most awesome heart thought ever. God said to me, “why don’t you trust me and I will provide all you need.” What an awesome word.

 

In June of 2014 I had mailed out over three hundred eighty letters to all of our friends and family asking for contributions to help us go to the Philippines, and by September there was nothing come in and the discouragement hit and that is when God spoke. He told me that He had indeed called us and He will send those who will contribute all we would need to go and minister as He has directed us. So, I erased all of the thoughts I had put down and told God, I will trust you and wait upon you for our provision. To date we still have very little to help us along our way but that is OK, because God said and I am not going running off on my own because He promised.

 

See how that happens? It comes so subtly that you don’t even see it until the discouragement comes and you then realize that you need God to do it because you can’t. Matthew 19:26 says, “For man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” and the biggest majority of the things God has asked of us though simple are impossible for us to complete without Him. God knows what we need and when we need it so it is better for us just to wait upon Him because He knows the right time for everything. It may sound amazing to us, but God knows everything regardless of how big or small. In Isaiah 55:8 it says, “For my ways are not your ways nor are your thoughts my thoughts declares the Lord.” Wow picture that, we don’t even have a clue to the right way to do what God has called us to and yet we try to do it anyway. It is like trying to hit a bottle at a thousand yards with a cap gun, can’t be done.

 

I think for us the best thing to do is to trust in God and He will make things happen in the exact time and probably a whole lot sooner than we could imagine. We need to get back to trusting in God and not trusting in what we think we can do. We may be good, but we aren’t that good believe me. Stop listening to the world and listen to the One who created us and let Him have His way in our lives.

 

Father, I ask you in the Name of Jesus that you take this life and change me Lord. Remove the things that don’t belong and replace them with the things of you. God I surrender to you and ask you to touch me in ways I can’t even think of. Heal my heart and my mind. Let my focus be totally and completely on you. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen!