Perfect Timing...

I am blessed by attending and belonging to a church that has a great pastor who challenges my life weekly.  I am actually dreading the fact that the next two weeks, we will not be in service.  Pastor Snow said something amazing and striking and I wanted to share it with you.  Some times the simplest things are the most profound things that can really change you.  He said, “we never know God’s timing, but God is always on time.”

When I was in high school, I felt really called to the mission field.  I really felt like I was supposed to be an international missionary and travel around the world sharing God’s good news.  I then went to a Christian college and met my fantastically amazing husband- who happens to not be called to international ministry.  Humm….  So why would God put us together?  It really was a God thing that we ended up together since I dumped him on his 21^st birthday!  (in my defense we hadn’t been together all that long and I had no idea that it was his birthday…)

So, why would God put us together?  Why would I be led to him, to marry him, pray about it, not be told NOT to marry him and still be happy?  I have struggled with the fact that I haven’t been fulfilling my calling for a long time.  I have worked with my church and I have worked with youth, and the rape crisis center and I have gone on short term missions projects.  I still didn’t feel that I was fulfilling my potential in God.

Well- “we don’t know God’s timing” and that is so very true.  A while back Pastor prayed an amazing prayer that I have written out and put under my computer.

“Lord, give me great vision to look beyond my present into Your future.  Give me great faith that is not shattered when my circumstances change and my expectations are not met.  Grant me a fearless persistence to do Your will.  Amen”

I prayed it and prayed it and just recently he has really opened my eyes.  I have realized that one of the reasons that I have always longed to be in ministry is because I always looked and thought that – hey they have a great relationship with God.  I want that- I want to have to have people look at me and say, “now she has a relationship with God.”  I want that relationship with God – and I need to be accountable – how selfish is that?  I wanted to have to be accountable because I know that when I am not accountable to someone or something, then things don’t get done.  Well God’s timing finally kicked in yesterday.  Almost 15 years after I felt called to be am international missionary, He finally showed me that – hey – you HAVE to get right with me first.  You have to be in the Word, know the Word, study the Word to be able to share the Word. 

God calls all of us to be missionaries in the Great Commission.  Matthew 28:18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Gather and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’.”

Acts 1:7-8 “He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’.”

Something that really hits home with me is that he says Jerusalem first- that is their home town.  Judea and Samaria are the surrounding areas and THEN go to the ends of the earth.  Now I have used this verse over and over to try to make me feel better about not going elsewhere.  But I am really starting to feel this is the verse that I need to focus on.  I need to be doing a much better, more concentrated effort here in my Jerusalem and be more focused on my here and now – if I am constantly looking towards the future and a goal that isn’t coming true anytime soon, then am I wasting my time and effort. 

I don’t need to be a missionary because I need to be accountable – I need to be one because God calls us to be one and because I have a life changing, life altering, life affirming message that EVERYONE should hear.  I need to be accountable to myself and to God! 

Lord, help me to focus on my here and now, making a difference for you today and in my reach.  Help me to be a good servant, seeking you and your will and your guidance.  Thank you for my current situation – for keeping and putting me here and making my now what it is.  Help me to serve you.  IJN amen.