Cahlia - This past year has been a whirlwind of changes and developments in my faith. I prayed prayers months ago that I had no idea would affect my life so much. God answers prayers in powerful ways and often we’re afraid to pray the things that could potentially change the trajectory of our lives.
The particular thing I asked was based on Philippians 3:8: “ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” I prayed to have that mindset in my life, and I saw that answered in crazy ways.
Friends, my entire way of viewing the world changed, which was cool, but also extremely depressing. I let that get the best of me and then I drifted farther away from God because all these revelations and challenges from Him were beginning to scare me.
In response to this, I took upon myself the burden of bringing every person I came in contact with to Christ and was disappointed constantly by the fact that I couldn’t. Over the last week or so God has helped me see Him and myself in a more balanced way.
The thing that has by far helped the most has been trusting that He is good and that I don’t have to understand His decisions to trust that fact. This is a broken and corrupt world and the only thing that truly can save us and that truly matters is Jesus.
Our purpose in life is to walk with Him and do everything we can to bring Him glory. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It doesn’t seem like an ideal situation to be yoked to someone and saving lives doesn’t seem like a light burden.
But since when did following God ever make total sense? He spoke through a donkey! He chose for His Son to be born in a feeding trough for animals! He called a man to build a boat before rain existed! He calls us to bypass our own logic and trust in His awesome, world-changing, sometimes crazy sounding plans.
As crazy as His plans sometimes sound, He doesn’t call us to do things He isn’t fully capable of helping us accomplish. So don’t let doubt and darkness get a hold of you. Lock your eyes unwaveringly on the one true God, and walk every day with Him trusting that whatever happens, He can work through it and in it. That kind of trust comes from a strength and focus beyond us.
Even Jesus didn’t begin His ministry until He was in His thirties. Waiting and working is hard but so worth it. The kind of patience that takes comes from being rooted in God’s word, constant in prayer, and consistent in developing your faith. All of those things take practice and discipline but God doesn’t ever say it’ll be easy.
When things are too much for us is when we’re forced to depend on God’s strength and let Him work in us. No person is too broken, no job too small, no mission too difficult, and no burden too heavy.
God loves you, no matter what. He can use any person and is doing something in your life this very moment. Are you aware of it and ready to respond?