But what is life lived comfortably?
Last night, I was sitting in a service of church and youth leaders preparing for a large summer camp. I’m simply in the service to observe and learn. From the side view I watch as executive leaders prayed over their team leaders. As I entered into prayer for the camp I looked up and saw the camp director sitting by himself on the center stage with head bowed.
Enter Holy Spirit prompt. I don’t know why or how but I knew someone needed to pray for that man. Chicken that I am I leaned over and nudged my co –worker: “Hey someone should go pray for that guy”. His reply: “Really? I was just thinking the same thing.” Guess who that ‘someone’ became?
Walk up to the stage in front of hundreds of leaders? Scary. Pray for someone we met only an hour before and don’t know? Risky. Pray when we don’t know what to say? Crazy.
But we did. Gulp.
Sitting back down the thoughts of “who am I a little no body from nowhere, praying for an experienced leader, a big somebody? He’s going to think we are nuts! I here to observe, learn, and I wanted to make a good impression not a stumbling bumbling one!” I prayed the first thing that came to mind asking the Lord to refresh and renew this director during the week. It was a weak prayer in human terms and I got up feeling so inadequate. But battling the inadequacy was the peace that came from knowing that I had obeyed. I left it there.
This morning in chapel the director preached from Proverbs 11:25 “… He who refreshes will himself be refreshed”. After encouraging the leaders to refresh the teens coming in this week he began to share the story of how he was praying the night before and two people came out of the blue and started praying for him, asking the Lord to refresh him. He too needed to be refreshed as he was refreshing the leaders under him. He said “it was like she got into my head as she was praying and knew what I was planning for the message this morning!” Scary. Crazy. Risky.
AWESOME!
Sitting in my seat I got shivers. The Holy Spirit knew. I had no idea, but He always does. When will I learn to trust? Will I mess up sometimes and hear wrong? Definitely. Not too many months ago I did. I felt the nudge to get up but stayed glued to my seat preferring the comfortable life. I missed an opportunity to help someone I KNEW was hurting because of my pride. I still regret it to this day. Taking a risk is chancy but missing one is even more so. Is it worth the risk? Every time.
God uses little scared people. How does He want to use you? Are you listening to Him? Or are you scared to? Run towards the challenge and see what He does! Is the bigger risk possibly making a mistake or never finding out how God can use you? Wants to use you? Guess what? He’s bigger than you and me. Go for it!
Photo compliments of Fotolia: Man - Woman
7 comments:
It seems like in the Old Testament God used so many people who were frightened. He had to encourage them to do what he wanted. Great post!
Awesome post! I have felt the Lord leading me to pray over different people this week, and even though I don't feel ready or know the right words to say, I've prayed ... something I may not have done at a different time. Praise God for giving us His words :o)
So Give me Words to speak
Don't let my Spirit sleep
Cause I can't think of anything worth saying
But I know that I owe You my life
So give me Words to speak
Don't let my Spirit sleep
- Aaron Shust
This is good stuff, I'm excited to see how God is working in your life... :)
I love "God uses little, scared people"! This post is awesome - it will change the rest of my day because I'm gonna sit down right now and ask the Holy Spirit to guide me.
Nice photos - glad to see you didn't mind me sending that fotolia offer your way.
I love testimonies like this... How easy it is to push aside the Spirit's leading- just because it doesn't make sense to us. We serve an Awesome God. Thanks for the reminder!
The Holy Spirit is so wild!
Thanks for this post Katie.
Our Christian communities will be A-MAZE-ING if we make a habit of responding to God's promptings. So often I feel like one of these "little, scared people".
One thing that's been sticking out to me lately is our concern for safety. It's got to be one of the top prayers for Christians. Keep us safe while traveling. Protect us. Make everything work perfectly.
It's not a bad thing to pray for safety, but safety (or at least the complete absense of danger) is not some great moral good in itself. If we prioritize the persuit of safety, we might not believe what the Holy Spirit is prompting, and we very well might miss out on God's best plans for our lives. I feel like I've already missed out on way too much due to my hesitations.
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