Am I adequate?

One of the things I’ve always struggled with is fear. This past Memorial Day Weekend conference Dr. Ron Cline shared a message on the need to choose joy in your life’s choices, and I want to share my own personal thoughts on this.

In my high school years, I’ve always felt the calling to work with teens but my fear always stopped me. I would think and dwell on all my inadequacies and list the reasons why God would never call me to something like this because of x, y and z. In short, I choose fear instead of choosing joy and depending on my trust in the Lord and my faith that he would supply what I would need to finish this task.

When I was twenty two the current youth pastor at my local church came to me and asked if I would help out as a youth leader in the youth group. Well, I have to tell you my stomach dropped. I would love to say that at the very moment when I felt God’s push to say yes I did… but I didn’t. Fear started to flood my mind and Satan filled my heart with all the reasons why I should say no. In which case I said the typical church answer… “Let me pray about it”.

In the middle of Dr. Cline’s message, he used the story from Matthew 28:8-10 “So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me”.

What is incredible about this section of scripture is, if these women had let their fear take hold of them, they would have missed out on an amazing encounter with Jesus! It says that even though they had doubts in their mind and fear in their hearts, fear that the disciples wouldn’t believe what they had to say or that they wouldn’t even be qualified to deliver such a message, they still went on.

Going back to my story, after taking some time to ask peoples advice and pray, I made the decision to say yes and start helping out in the youth group. Was I still afraid? Yes absolutely, but I can’t tell you how many amazing moments I’ve had building relationships with these young teens and having my own encounters with Jesus along the way. My encouragement to you is this: there is no safer place then in God’s will for your life. Will there be fear? Yes, will Satan try and discourage you and tell you all the reasons why you’re inadequate? Yes, but Jesus himself is calling you to an even greater work; He is promising to be with you in every step. Do not miss out on running your race with joy and encountering Jesus along the way. – Graeme Wilson serves full-time at America’s Keswick in the area of IT/AV and Marketing

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 17-18; Matthew 15:1-20

Quote of the day: Worship in truth is worship that arises out of an actual encounter with God, a response to the experience of knowing God’s real presence and activity in our daily lives. This has nothing to do with sentiment, thinking religious thoughts or having aesthetic experiences in church buildings; any religion can give you that sort of thing.  Graham Kendrick

Bible Memory: How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:103-104