Never say never with God.
He often asks us to do the very thing we think we will never do.
Today God asked me to step out in obedience and try something new. He asked me to work with the special needs kids here at the Bykota home. I thought, are you serious God, and he was like yeah…so I said I’d try it. If you know me, I’m not that fond of kids. Back in the states, my family knows me as the cousin who doesn’t hold babies. I started holding them a bit more before I left though its still new to me. I don’t honestly have much experience with small children. I got used to working with teens in south Africa and really enjoyed that, and then fell in love with the Swazi kids, ages 8+, but I avoided the baby house at all costs. However, God, knowing I had no experience, that I am so very ill equipped, still asked me to do this, and since I am trying this new thing called listening and being obedient to my father, I said okay, let’s do this, not having any idea what to expect.
He did the same thing this month when my new team leader, Larisa asked me to be the treasurer. Now a month ago, if you’d told me I’d be the treasurer for a team, I would have laughed in your face. It was the one job I didn’t want to do. However, they asked me if I’d do it, so I asked God why, why would they ask me? But I just kept thinking, everything happens for a reason Kimberly, and so they asked you for a reason. I knew I wouldn’t be alone, and would have lots of help. I also knew that it could be a place for me to grow in…in patience, self control, and who knows what else God could teach me through this, so I said yes.
See that is a huge thing I am learning: say yes to God. He is a good father who wants good things for us and he disciplines who he loves, he teaches who he loves, and he wants us to grow, in our character and in our relationship with Him. I want to grow, and I kept thinking about this quote:
“God beckons storm clouds and they come. He tells the wind to blow and the rain to fall, and they obey immediately. He speaks to the mountains, ‘You go there,’ and He says to the seas, ‘You stop here, and they do it. Everything in all creation responds in obedience to the Creator…until we get to you and me. We have the audacity to look God in the face and say, ‘No.”
by David Platt from his book Radical. I have been thinking about this a lot and it sits heavy on me. I look back on my past and realize how much I have said No to God, and I am sick of it, sick of thinking Kimberly’s way is somehow better than God’s way. So here I go, trusting my father, that what he has given me is what is best for me. I know that even when it is challenging, hard, or tough, I can rely on Him to be my strength to get me through, because I firmly believe that if He has called you to it, then He will lead you through it!
These things I’m doing aren’t things I would ever choose myself, but Gods ways are higher than ours, and I want to grow in what he has for me, and so here I go, saying yes, eating my words of the past, and relying on Him for the future!!
