God has called me to The World Race without a shadow of doubt and I know He has from the second I applied for The World Race back in Mid-April. Now if I knew what some of the things He was going to allow me to go through during this process before hand I wouldn't be going on The World Race. That's a fact.
Take this for example we go into our local Super Wal-Mart, Harris Teeter, Aldi or whereever we go to buy our groceries and we see big cartons of Tropicana Orange Juice!! Yes, I do like Tropicana Orange Juice so that's why I use this brand of juice in my example. All we see is the finished product on the shelf and we take this for granted because we just go to the dairy case, pick up a carton of Tropicana, take the juice home and enjoy! There is much more that goes into the process of making oranges into orange juice, just as God is molding me into the man He wants me to be for his ministry for The World Race. This process is not easy for me in fact this is quite painful at times.
1. Take an orange and squeeze with the palm of your hand to soften the orange. God is saying this to me, I have called you to The World Race to be used in the way I want you to be used for Blake, this is not what you think this is Blake. This process will be painful at times and hurt some but Blake I love you and I am doing this for your own good. God is molding me into the man He wants me to be for His glory. "And yet, O Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are formed by your hand. Isaiah 64:8 NLT God is the one who is making us into what He wants us to be and He knows best!
2. Cut the Orange into half and remove the seeds. God will cut us into half to use us for His glory. The problem is with us here on earth is that we are sinners. We all have seeds on the inside of us. This would be struggles we are tempted with that lead us to sin. Forms of seeds in our lives could be selfishness, lust, cussing, carelessness, pride, not being fully confident in the Lord, etc. For me right now God is wanting me to fully trust in Him and not to worry about the little things. This process has been painful! The worry has come back to me at some points and has been painful. I know God will make me into a great glass of juice for His glory but right now He is plucking out all of the ugly seeds out of me and this is no fun.
3. Grip one half of the orange tightly and squeeze the orange by hand to get the juice out. I have made fresh orange juice by hand before and squeezing every orange is a long and tedious process. God has been telling me to not take things into my own hands and trust Him fully with providing me the funds for the World Race. I have been like I have sent out and prayed over 120 support letters so far and only 5 have responded so far! What the … God really comon! I get excited about what God is doing in my life and I get little verbal response in my opinion instead I get silence. What is the meaning of this God? I know I am called on the WR for your glory and all but I rather get verbally blasted for doing this then silence. God says to us, " Commit everything you do to the Lord, Trust Him and He will help you." Psalm 37:5 NLT God has called me to this for His purpose and He is the one in full control of this process. He will provide the funding for this mission because it is His plan for me and in His timing, not my personal preference! Sorry, God is in control not you!
4. Scrape the remaining parts of the orange with a spoon to add more fruit into the glass of juice. God has now taken the seeds out of the orange, squeeze you apart and now has the gifts He wants you to use for His glory with everyone He allows you to come into contact with in His timing. He is giving the proper amounts of each gift He has given you into your glass of Orange Juice!
5. Finished product!! A delicious glass of Orange Juice!! God has refined you for His purpose at this time in life.
Repeat as many times God Demands this from you!! He WILL repeat as many times as needed to be the person He wants you to be for His purpose!! Your not in control of when things will work out in life God is period!!
