I never cease to be amazed at how God works in my life.
This is small, but encouraging to me. Last night we had somewhere around 35 kids in youth. This is GREAT for us! But I find myself disappointed in how severely UNSPIRITUAL some of them are. Not the brand new ones, but ones that have been around and ought to have grown. Then of course, girls seem to think that everytime another girl says something semi-derogatory about our group that I need to know. (Like, what am I going to do about it??) This does little but discourage me. Last night was just one occurrence of this. I was told by a good source that one of our girls was asked by her little visitor friend why she goes to girls bible study and she replied that she didn't know but that it "wasn't a big deal" and she didn't have to come if her little visitor friend didn't want to. I mean, our girl is in 7th grade......she doesn't know which end is up right now and I am not going to put a lot of stock in the offbeat comments she makes to look cool to her (also 7th grade) buddy. But I still get discouraged. I throw my heart and soul into that group and it seems like the fruit isn't there like I would like. Now we have had plenty of growth, but numerical growth has NEVER been my goal.
So, to make a short story longer, I was kind of down, even though our numbers were so good last night. I felt (and still feel) like I'm not having the impact that I want.. I want these kids to really experience God, and I don't know that that is happening. We are doing our best and giving it our all, but sometimes all just doesn't seem to be enough when there is so much pressure on them from the outside.
But this morning, I turned to my devotional and it was titled "Doing what we can." Applicable. It used 1 Corinthians 3:5-15 as the scripture reference ("He who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward.....") But it just encouraged the reader to remember that we cannot look in our limited understanding and see what effect we are or are not having in our ministry. God knows and will work it all out for His glory. There was a quote in the reading that from an unnamed clergyman that read "We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development.....We cannot do everything, and there's a sense of liberation in realizing that."
How great to remind myself that I CAN'T do everything. God is working out HIS plan in each of these teenager's lives. They have a free will at work as well. But God is placing people in their lives, me and Andy, their parents, other mentors and through us working as a team, God will work out His plan for their lives. I can see that in my own life. God placed several people in my life, one after another, to allow me to see God in their lives. Even my youth pastors - their teachings I have long forgotten, but how they conducted themselves and the lives that they lead taught me how to follow Jesus in a very practical way.
The devotion ended with: "You are a succes in God's kingdom if you are faithful where He has placed you."
My prayer of response is that I would TRULY BE faithful in everything that he has entrusted to me and where he has placed me.
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