Two years ago last week, I was sitting in a small office building in China, signing paperwork that officially made two little girl my daughters, {Zoey and Kate}. They were our ninth and tenth children. If you had told me 12 years ago that I would someday be the mom of 10, I would have fallen down laughing.
But here I am.
And I’m not laughing anymore!
I have been a Christian since I was a little girl but when I was in my 20's, I started to wonder if there was more to the Christian life than just living right and going to church.
Twelve years ago, I went to a women’s retreat where we were challenged to pray, “Lord break my heart with the things that break yours.” I went home and began to pray that prayer and it wasn’t long before God showed me something that was on His heart.
Orphans.
Little orphaned girls in China, to be exact. And soon He had my husband and I on an odyssey to redeem the life of one of those precious baby girls. After only two months home with her, He let us know that He had another one that belonged with us. Over the years, He sent us over and over again to China and once to Guatemala.
You know…I was willing to adopt but I was puzzled. I had always been taught that we should figure out what our gifts and talents were and then plug into our church, or into a ministry that was a match. And yet…God had called me to be a mom to 10 kids and guess what? I don’t even like kids! I wasn’t particularly good at mothering either. So what was the deal?
I asked God about it repeatedly because it seriously bugged me. Finally, He gave me my answer through the story of Gideon in Judges 6.
Gideon was hiding out from his enemies, threshing wheat underground in a wine press. I've always thought that Gideon was kind of wimpy. He wasn't exactly an in-your-face-brave kind of guy.
An angel comes and says to him, “The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior.”
Gideon had to be thinking…um…seriously? I’ve never fought anyone. Why are you calling me a mighty warrior? But God saw what Gideon WOULD BECOME, not who he currently was.
And suddenly, I got it. God didn’t see me as good-mother material. He only saw that I would be willing to obey Him. So He shared His heart for orphans with me and filled me with His spirit and compassion for them. I was just a tool…or a piece of clay if you will.
For many years, I had it all upside down and backwards. I was going by what I had already seen God do through me—my gifts and talents—and assuming that those were what I had been given for the rest of my life. I had my own agenda and could tell God where I thought I should serve Him.
We don’t inform God what our gifts and talents are because we are clay in the Potter’s hand. Clay is moldable, yielded, and becomes useful only in the Potter’s hands. And those gifts and talents can change! I could be a 'plate' for one assignment, get squished into a ball afterwards and then into a 'cup' for the next assignment. If I said to God, “No, I can’t go be a cup because You've already used me as a plate…how dumb would that be?” I’m just CLAY. He can use and form me any way He wants. Of course, I can refuse. And if I do that, I end up as a useless shard on the floor of the Potter's shop. He gives me the choice.
Henry Blackaby, one of my favorite authors says this--
“God is not limited to working with OUR strengths!!!!
If His assignment needs humility, he finds a servant willing to be humbled. When His work requires zeal, He looks for someone He can fill with His spirit.”
It’s GOD’s agenda, not ours. He’s writing the story. Not us!
There is a song on the radio by Matthew West called “The Motions” and the chorus goes like this:
"I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna spend one more day
Without Your all-consuming passion inside of me.
I don’t want to spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions."
So how do we stop going through the motions and get to the heart of God? Ask Him to share his heart with us and then be ready to obey with action.
Here's Henry Blackaby again...
“When was the last time God spoke to you about what He wanted to do and you were scared to death by its magnitude?”
“Would you dare to believe that God, who called you to Himself and equipped you with His Spirit, could work mightily through you?”
If we limit God to what WE think are our strengths and talents, we can totally miss our purpose in life. We will miss the passion and the adventure that He created us for.
In Hebrews 11, there are many hero's of the Faith listed. They were just ordinary men and women like you and me. Unlikely Hero's who were filled with God’s spirit and passion. We ALL have potential to become hero's of the faith!
Abraham, Noah, Esther, Ruth, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, David, Paul…
There are two common themes running through their stories.
1. In the eyes of the world, they weren't the best candidates for the job
2. They trusted and obeyed God.
We will not obey a God we do not trust.
One major barrier to trust is our fear of not being in control of our lives. But seriously…are we REALLY in control?
Of course not.
It’s just Satan’s way of keeping us from obeying God.
So…let's see...we 'give up' a control we don’t really have, to the One person in the world who has our best interest at heart and DOES have the ability to control everything in the universe.
Hello?
That is a big fat DUH moment, ya’ll!!
Jim Elliot said it better, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
Jesus said, “He who saves his life will lose it but he who gives his life will find it. Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." {John 12:24}
It sounds counter-intuitive, but when we jump into the arms of God with reckless abandon, we come alive in a way we can never know if we stay huddled in our comfort zones, hiding behind our excuses.
What is God speaking to your heart about?
What is keeping you from actually doing it?
If you don’t feel that God is speaking to your heart, take this challenge—pray that He will break your heart with something that breaks His. And then be ready to obey His call. I promise you will not regret it!
He is looking for willing hearts. He will do the rest.
{Isaiah 6:8} Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Let God make you into an unlikely hero to a suffering, hurting world, where the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
