In seeking to preserve your own life you will lose it. If you are prepared to lose your life for God’s sake, you will find it… I believe that such a moment comes in the life of every child of God – the moment when God’s purpose for your life hangs delicately in the balance.… Fulfillment comes with the realization that you do not have in yourself what it takes. Death to all that you are in your own inadequacy is the only gateway through which you may enter into the fullness of all that Christ is, so that you may live miraculously in the power of His resurrection, crying from the heart, “Lord Jesus, I can’t but you can, and that is all I need to know – let’s go!”
~ Major W. Ian Thomas
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
~ from Isaiah 55
Oh beloved, it is true. He calls us into a life well beyond our tiny little dreams of success. Places like China.
We hope for a house and a car and wife. Maybe He will give us a few kids, and make our bank accounts have enough in them to cover the bills for our lives. And if we are really immature, we think we want lots of money and other things to complicate our existence.
He laughs.
We go big (we think), and tell Him that we want to serve Him. We want to get into some ministry and make a difference in some people’s lives. We know that helping others is important, and we want to show Him our willingness to serve Him.
Just a smile from Him… with a hint of a Fatherly chuckle.
Then, we think we will really go out on a limb, and become a “missionary!” We will go places that need to hear about Jesus and tell them. We will leave our little comforts behind and sacrifice for Him. We look forward to being a key component in the Great Commission.
Now we can actually hear it if we are listening. G_d is giggling.
We go into the fields. And we fall flat on our face, but we get up and keep slugging along for years. We know, if we just try hard enough, that we will bring some fruit into the harvest. So we do, we just keep trying and failing (and actually beginning to wonder what in the world we are doing…).
Oh my, now He is beginning to belly laugh!
“What Father?! What is so funny?”
“You child! You are hilarious!”
“Father, I am trying to serve You!”
He giggles, “No thanks. Not interested. Don’t need you!”
We respond, “Huh?”
And then… with the deepest sincerity we have ever heard, “You have no idea how big My plans are for you child. Will you allow Me to show them to you, in My Way, in My Time? But this I will say, My plans are enormous!”
Somewhere along the way, we listen and let Him be Him. As we do, the size of the plan begins to form out in front of us. And in seeing it, our sense of understanding both grows and faints at the scope. Enormous waves of infinity roll out before us. We begin to see that millions are involved. We begin to see that anything we have is goofily too small to even begin to be enough to take a single step on the path He has set before us.
This fool of a writer has heard Him giggling at my plans before. Have you? May i preach for a moment? Put your plans down. They are too small, and so are you.
Recently, He brought me and my spouse into a new posting in China, and in only 100 days, He is beginning to show us that the whole reason He brought us here is so completely larger than we thought, that we could not have even comprehended it from the outside. He is like that though. What a joy.
Tonight is your night too beloved. Time to put down your plans and let His take form in your life.
