Enjoy the Ride…

I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity in speaking at various churches over the past few weeks yet each time I prepare the sermon, deliver the sermon and reflect upon the sermon, I realise how inadequate I am and have been in the process. Though it is part and parcel of what I do, I can only acknowledge that the divine is actively involved in this process. God has promised that His word will never return to him empty but will always accomplish the desire and purpose for which he has sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

When I prepare I have in mind the outcome that I would like to see or what I believe God has in store but many times at the conclusion of the sermon I discover that it has not even come close to what I thought it would be. I am amazed that while God chooses to use us, he has his own agenda and his own outcomes and many times what I desire falls tremendously short of his.

In that is a tremendous blessing and guarantee, the blessing and guarantee that says, trust God and allow him to do just what he chooses to do and the outcome will always be amazing. It will be an outcome that is beyond what we can ask for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Look at the life of Moses (Exodus 3) when God confronts him at the burning bush and he tells God that he stutters and is not cut out for the job. Yes, while God gave him Aaron, we see what God has done through and with Moses, only because he availed himself to God. So when the task seems insurmountable, do not fret, the impossible is possible.

So what is my point?

1. Trust God when he asks you to be available for him even when we feel we do not have what it takes, ultimately he will grant you success.
2. God’s plans are bigger than ours and not even in our wildest imagination do we have clue of what he has in store for us.
3. Enjoy the ride – God is in control.

A Day at the Day Hospital

If any is familiar with day hospitals in Cape Town, then you will be familiar with waiting and waiting and waiting. It was literally a full days work. We arrived at 7am and left just before 3pm. It was a long and torturous day, but a day with many many lessons learnt. Allow me to just share three of them.

 

I have learnt that God doesn’t always heal and because he doesn’t come through for you in the way that you would like doesn’t mean he does not care or love you. I have learnt again that sickness is not necessarily a lack of faith or sinning against God. Sickness is a part of life. We get sick, we age, we die. It might be sombre and depressing but it is a reality. We cannot escape the inevitable. A day will come when we will be called home, where will your home be?

 

Being wise and responsible also means that we need to see medical practitioners (hopefully you will have medical aid for that, poverty can be dehumanizing especially when help is needed) on a regular basis and not just wait for God to heal miraculously. We cannot say if we have not experienced healing was because we lacked faith. I do not always know why God allows us to go through moments of difficulty, pain and trials, but I have always experienced his grace and peace in the midst of it all. God offers us his peace even when it seems foreign and impossible in moments of great trial and loss.

 

But what I learnt most of all today, is that God affords us only one life. One life to live. One life to love those whom God has given to us. One life to live out the purpose that God has given and not squander it for reasons of fear or indecision or any other reason.

 

Listen what God says in Joshua 1:9

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged,

for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

 

You only live once, live it purposefully, live it intentionally.