Good morning,
I heard a great story this week that can give us a very encouraging perspective on the way God usually uses the kids in his family. One of the men from our congregation had gone up to visit his mom over the Mother’s Day weekend. She was still living in the city where he had grown up. While driving through the city he noticed a large old city building that he remembered from his younger days there. Since the door was open, he stopped to look around for old times sake. People were setting things up for a high school event, and while there he just happened to see someone who looked familiar. He asked the woman if she was from a family that he had known, only to discover that she was the wife of one of the men from that family. Her husband showed up and while they were talking, he turned to his wife and said, “This is the guy who introduced me to Jesus,” My friend asked him “Is that really so?” The man then described the two of them sitting in an old blue car talking together and it was then that he had prayed to receive Jesus. Then he turned to my friend and asked him. “Do you remember that?” He was embarrassed that he couldn’t clearly remember the details. He remembered the blue car but not that event. That happened over 30 years ago and it was long forgotten. Then he discovered that this man was ministering to one of our friend’s sisters in great need of prayer and encouragement.
God has some very interesting rules for those he has called to reflect him to a watching world. The people that seem most effective in the world around us are those who have a following of people who respond to their looks, their success, their wealth or their intelligence. Real success requires remembering names and events that show people that they are still important. God’s way is different. God requires that we become more and more dependent on him and less and less dependent on our own skills and and reputations. It’s often true that those of us in ministry have opportunities that come up when we are under physical or spiritual pressures, and it’s those events that become the easiest to recall. We also minister to people that we see only for a short time and then lose track of what God is doing in their lives. Our Enemy does his best to get us self focused and see our usefulness defined by the world’s standards. Paul reminds us to keep on keeping on. One thing we can count on is that nothing that we do for the Lord is ever useless. May we like Paul be strong and immovable as we depend on God’s Holy Spirit to do his eternal work in us and through us.
1 Corinthians 15:58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
Roy Wisner
