LIFE-CHANGES. How do they start? And how does
a life-change transform from a hyphenated word and become an actual, honest-to-goodness
change in how we live our lives? In
these past few weeks that have now stretched into a month and a half since God
gave us that unforgettable “push” into this new season of our lives, I have
been doing lots of thinking and heart-searching. And yes, more praying – but even more than
that, I’ve been trying to “listen” more.
Yes, to God. I want to hear His
voice more clearly than I’ve ever heard it before. You see, I find it hard to believe that God
would go to the great lengths He did to push us into the pain we experienced –
for nothing. Surely, if the level of the
struggle is any indication at all. God must have been preparing us for
something quite unique and close to His heart.
So what is behind this seasonal change for us, spiritually speaking? Will God reveal it to us all at once? Or will He show us in bits and pieces … as we
step into action? Leaps here – and baby
steps there? In searching my heart and
seeking God’s, I think He is telling me that knowing it all and seeing the
complete picture from the beginning, is much less important than just doing something. Some thing.
Something for Him. Doing some
thing that will make an eternal difference for someone else. I think living in this great nation of ours
with its ever-evolving belief system has caused our spiritual understanding to
become hazed and clouded. And what we see of life, does not register accurately
or compare with what God sees. We find
ourselves in denial. We’re just a little
(or a lot) frightened to open up our eyes and see what God sees. We know we might not like it. We know it might cost us something that
perhaps we hold “too dear” to our hearts.
We fear the unknown and the uncomfortable. We convince ourselves that the overall
problems are too big for us to fix, anyhow.
So we fix nothing. We do nothing. And another day passes by. More broken lives hurtle into downward spirals. We just shake our heads in helplessness. What could we have done anyhow? Well, what if each of God’s kids acted on what we knew He wanted us to
do? What
if each of us just did one thing each day that held eternal
value? Not tons of overwhelming
things – but just one thing. Even if it was a little thing. Each day.
Multiply that times the hundred of thousands of people who call
themselves by Christ’s Name. Genuine,
for-real Christians. How different would
our world be if tomorrow morning hundreds of thousands of us greeted the day
with a simple, but solid commitment to act on just one God-appointment that day?
Well, mathematically, hundreds of thousands of broken lives would stop
spiraling into deeper despair. And
spiritually, hundreds of thousands of broken lives would be fixed with the
Gospel of Christ – for eternity. People,
that’s just one day. People, that’s just one person: me. And that’s
just one person: you. But multiplied, look what God’s Spirit in
us can accomplish along with the other hundreds of thousands of people that opt
to do at least one thing on one day. What
if all of us allowed God to set up appointments for us for an entire week – or month
– or year? How different would our world
be? With the sense that Christ’s coming
is nearing, we have no time to waste. We
dare not procrastinate. We cannot afford
to keep our mouths shut and hold the message of Christ to ourselves. Don’t we want to take as many people to Heaven
with us as we can? Then … what are we
waiting for? Each day we do nothing, we
are passing up opportunities with eternal results. Come on, take my hand and let me show you
something. On Sunday, our church family
gathered together to praise and worship the Lord God Almighty. We were blessed, challenged, and hopefully
changed. But were we? Monday came – and went. What did we do for Christ on Monday? Well, Sunday’s message was still burning in
our hearts on Monday. We were focused on
planning and preparing for next Sunday – but then a knock came at our
door. We don’t get too many of
those. We are usually the ones knocking
at someone else’s door, you see. My
husband answered and a back-and-forth conversation ensued with a young salesman
with a TV satellite company. Within
minutes they had left the front door and made their way into the kitchen
area. When the conversation led to my
husband stating that he is a pastor, the young man stopped all sales talk and
asked if we would pray for his wife. Two
months pregnant with their first child, she is having complications, he told us
– and tears filled his eyes. More sales
talk … then we stepped close to him and prayed for his wife and for this new
baby to come. As this young man wrapped
things up, he was about to leave.
Suddenly, God’s Spirit put an urgency in my heart to not let him leave
until we had asked if he knew Jesus personally.
Sure, he had asked us to pray.
But even lost people recognize the power of prayer and can want God’s
gifts without having Him in their lives.
So without delay, I said simply, “You seem like an awesome young man,
and you’ve even asked us to pray for your family. But before you leave us tonight, we just have
to ask if you’ve ever asked Jesus to become your personal Savior. There’s no other decision you can make that
will ever be more important than that one!”
And his response came naturally as he shared that he had been raised in
a religion full of rituals, but as a teenager had indeed, accepted Christ as
his Lord and Savior. He went on to share
some of his testimony and then made a profound statement. He said that he understands that any of us
can pray for someone else; but he said he also recognizes that the Holy Spirit
uses those who God has called to His work, so he wanted to ask us to pray for
his wife and unborn child. Talk about a
God-moment! While it turned out that
this young man knew Christ, his answer could have been totally the opposite and
we could have led a soul to Christ – for eternity! I believe God gave us the opportunity – to simply
ask. To do some thing … on one day: a Monday. For if we are faithful in changing how we
live our lives every day, God will
entrust us with at least that one
thing, and just maybe in the days to come, He will trust us with more of His
work! Remember, one multiplied by hundreds of thousands – equals hundreds of
thousands that continue to multiply and share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ! The more souls that are rescued …
the more God’s heart is touched! Will
you join us in this season for souls?
Just saying one thing each
day – just doing one thing each day …
that will last for Eternity!
REMEMBER . .
.
“We throw
open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that He has already
thrown open His door to us.
We find
ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand –
out in the
wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our
praise.”
~ Romans 5:2
Serving Christ Joyfully . . .
Pastor Doug and Debbie
