I was involved in the Bible Study, “Battlefield of the Mind” by Joyce Meyer and we had an assignment to respond in obedience to the nudging of the Holy Spirit–in other words, to act upon the promptings we can get that may seem a little ‘out there’. You may have had those promptings like I have and you may have received incredible blessings from being obedient to the call. However, I have also sometimes ignored them and not responded to that nudging with the justification that “I can’t do that” or “What would that person think if I did that.”
When I sing “Here I am to Worship…,” I know that to worship God is to revere, adore and acknowledge Him for who He is. But there is also another part of worship that encompasses what we do with our life on the horizontal plane. My mantra continues to be “Love God and love others” but I need help with all that entails. I do not necessarily need to round up the troops to head over to India to be on the mission field. That could be the call to some but I have a mission field right here in my own backyard. Wherever I am and whatever I am doing provides an opportunity to make a difference in my “sphere of influence”. However, I want to take this to another extreme only because every time I have let an opportunity go by without sharing the gospel when the door was planted and opened right in front of me, I knew that I blew it! I felt such disappointment with myself and had to ask the Lord to forgive me for cowering away from such a prime moment. I am reminded in the book of Esther when Uncle Mordecai admonished Esther that if she did not respond in obedience to the call placed upon her to confront the evil plot against the Jews God would raise up someone else to do the job! And, Esther herself might perish with the rest of the Jewish people that she had been called to rescue. Strong words! Well, Esther did heed the warning, asking the people to fast and pray for her opportunity to go before the king. It was her obedience that saved a nation!
On a recent return trip to Minnesota with my daughter, we did not have a direct flight and I was grateful that we could just be casual about the extra hours of waiting and flying without having to run to catch our last leg of the trip. We finally boarded in Dallas and, since I fly a little bit more often than she, I gave her the opportunity to sit by the window before I sat down. The isle seat remained open until the gentleman in the row ahead of us (after helping my daughter stow her carry on) was booted out of his seat because he mistakenly read his seat number when someone came to claim the seat he was in him in our row. He was a quiet man who busied himself with reading the newspaper. I waited until after he had read his paper, because there is nothing more annoying than being interrupted by someone asking you questions when you are reading! Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a rather large ring on his hand which I soon discovered had Vikings imprinted on it. Hmm…and, of course, I got my daughter to notice without too much fuss.
We began our conversation by my asking about cab service out of the Minneapolis airport. I have never needed to take a cab before, but our Monday return had our friends working and unable to pick us up and take us to our car. I will spare you the details of a two hour conversation, but I have continued to thank God for opening up a door to share a message of hope to a man who had some stuff going on in his life from serious physical issues, a pending divorce and some personal stuff he was trying to work through. I was able to share Scripture with him because I could sense some uncertainty about his future. Philippians 4:6,7 is certainly where I go camping when things look obscure, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; then the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus.” I also encouraged a relational walk with Jesus. He seemed like so many of us who find ourselves at the end of our rope with no way of turning things around and wondering what the point is in going on!
I have since prayed for this man, his health and marriage and I can only thank God for the fulfillment of this Scripture in 1 Peter 3:15 “…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…” Peter makes it very clear to me! Now, on to my next assignment. So simple; just take the step of obedience instead of wondering if you should because God has already paved the way!
Unashamed of You
It is so funny how we look for a starting place to invoke change. I do not believe that most of us just wake up on a day and say I am going to quit this or that. Or, I am going to quit my job and start a business of my own (you fill in the scenario.) Now if I am wrong let me hear from you! For most of us, change or the desire for change comes to somehow better our circumstances. We ponder what it is we desire to change for a time, and sometimes it is just a bad habit or a plaguing issue that we desire to be rid of, non-the-less it is still change.
Do you ever look at rude people and think how selfish and unaware they are of others around them? I am certain that we can all be that way at times but I do not want that to be how people see me. Therefore I have included on my list to work at being kind. There are so many folks that just need a kind word spoken into them. And who is to say that the word of encouragement would be used to change the course of that person’s day by just being kind to them? I can sometimes snap at my spouse and then wonder why he won’t communicate with me, why would he? So now I try to remember to ask the Holy Spirit to show me how to speak kindness to my husband.
