We really are some messed up people, aren’t we?
I’m not sure what exactly I thought we were going to get with a motto such as “No Perfect People Allowed”. I knew what it meant, of course, but quite honestly, I didn’t sit down, analyze it, and ponder the types of imperfections we were going to get. I would just take people as they came, one situation at a time, I told myself. I’m not by myself, and I can handle anything.
Ha!
Some of us are more stubborn, hard-headed & prideful than others, I realize. God certainly has a way of showing us that we can’t do anything on our own!
I may have been wrong about being able to handle anything, but I wasn’t wrong about the fact that I am not alone. It is only through HIM that we can do anything. That includes ministering to others.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Sometimes I wonder why God has put me where I am, why he uses me to minister to other people….what right do I have to get involved in people’s lives, problems, and issues? I’m no better than anyone else. I’m not perfect! I haven’t gone through half of the things I minister people through! Not that I want to go through those things, but what right do I have to say anything about it??
Then He speaks to me and sets me straight….”What right do you have to NOT do what I have called you to do and be in the place that I have put you?”
Wow.
God is not in the business of lies! His word tells us that He will never leave us or foresake us. It also tells us that He gives us gifts to be used to serve each other and glorify Him.
1 Peter 4:10
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.
1 Peter 4:11
….in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
HE gives me the guidance I need, the wisdom, knowledge, and the words to speak when I don’t know the way. This is how He shows us who He is! We know what we are capable of on our own, but when we do something we know isn’t something we ever could before, that’s God showing us that it is HIM!
It’s okay that I question Him. He expects me to question Him. I may not get the answers that I’m looking for, but He gives me the answers He wants me to have, speaks to my heart, reminds me why He made me the way that I am, tells me to trust Him, and sends me on my way in obedience.
Ephesians 1:17-18
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you
If we really and truly believed His word…why would we worry?? Way too often we listen to the voice of the enemy telling us that we are not worthy of God’s love. That we are not good enough to do anything for God. That we have no place ministering to people because we have not experienced what they are going through…that we are not perfect…and the millions of other things he puts in our heads to doubt ourselves instead of listening to the WORD of God that tells us:
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ
If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time or had conversation with me, you’ll notice a consistancy of unworthiness in my posts and dialogue. It’s something I think about every day. I know that I do not deserve anything that God has given me or anything that He does with me! I truly believe that if we ever lose that feeling, if we ever get to the point where we take God’s grace for granted and the pride of our flesh starts to take credit for the things God does through us, we need to immediately STOP and allow Him a season to break us and humble us.
James 4:5-6
Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
He is a jealous God, but He is also a forgiving God that gives grace freely and continuously. I am thankful for that grace. I need that grace.
So do you.
