That was dumb. Who does that? Okay, everyone, quite often. I have two stories for you: one is of how I got on the race, and the second is something I told God I would never do on the race. He laughed and I did it anyway.
Story number one: I felt called to try overseas missions at 14 yrs old, but made excuses to God as to why I could not go for the next 10 years. The problem was that I thought I had to be good enough on my own and was waiting for that day to come. However, we will clearly never be good enough on our own. We need God in our lives because we are not and cannot be good enough on our own. Here I am on the race, I eventually said yes and chose to trust that God is good enough. I wrote more about that in one of my first blogs, check it out! http://crystalmccartha.theworldrace.org/?filename=whynot-go
Story number two: I said yes to come on the World Race but told God I would never preach or speak in front of a church. Reality check, I’ve shared my testimony in every country thus far, some countries multiple times in various churches and settings, in English and Spanish. I don’t even speak much Spanish. To top it all off I gave my first sermon last month in Peru. Our group was asked if someone would speak an hour before the service, I said yes for some reason and it happened. It also went really well because I had no choice but to let God do His thing.
I spoke on Mt 22:15-22 and focused on Vs 21 (in bold and italics below).
15 ‘Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.’
But what is God’s? According to 2 Corinthians 1:22, “He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” We belong to God, and He gave us the Holy Spirit to prove it. We are to give our lives to Him.
Knowing that we are his and He is sufficient to equip us to do what He’s called us to do, what does it look like for you to live your life for God?
It does not have to be as big as going overseas for a year. Look at the impact Jesus had on the whole world, and you know what? He never travelled more than 322 km (200 miles) outside of his hometown!
God’s not waiting for you to be good enough, He’s asking you to step out in faith and believe that He is good enough.
We are God’s, what does it look like for you to give to God what is God’s? Your gifts, your talents, your time, your possessions, your money, etc.
How will you steward what God’s given you?
Live Well,
Crystal McCartha
Financial Stuff: I am almost fully funded! I have $12,345 which just leaves a little over $1,000 I need by July 1st in just over a month. Feel free to click on the ‘Support Me’ link on the left if you have any money you’d like to kindly give!
