I mentioned listening in a previous blog being a key theme in my life right now. As I struggle with writer’s block, I felt God leading me to write about other things. So with renewed commitment and praying for more awareness of God speaking to me and leading me, I am trying to do better. It is what caused me to go to the doctor and write these few blogs.
On my way home yesterday I was reminded of the various ways God speaks to us and just how big God is. Also, how He wants to show us just what He can do and how He can use us. One of the ways that God uses to talk to us is through people. My hope is that I am not stubborn and start listening better. I feel like I struggle with selective hearing as well, meaning that I feel like doing God’s will when I want to which obviously is not the right attitude.
As I drove home listening to the radio, a Christian radio station was interviewing an author, Bob Goff, about his upcoming book. In the book he talks about an amazing story of how God can show up so big. The story goes that there was a Ugandan boy named Charlie that was abducted by a witch doctor. Charlie had parts of his body taken from him by this witch doctor. Somehow though Charlie didn’t die. The authorities found this witch doctor and arrested him. No witch doctor has ever been taken to trial for human trafficking and taking body parts. This was the first conviction ever for a witch doctor in Uganda. It sent a huge shockwave around country because many look at these people as having all the power. Incredibly thousands of miles away, a doctor was taking a flying lesson when his instructor told him about the story. The doctor calls up this author and tells him he can fix him. The author tells him you don’t know what happened to the boy and how there was so much taken from him. The doctor persisted and told him he was chief of surgery at Cedars Sinai and he can fix him. So, the author flies to Los Angeles to talk to him and they discuss what can be done. The author asked how much it would cost and the doctor said it would be staggering but he will do it for free. Cedars Sinai writes a $50k check for the boy to get this procedure. They go get the boy to bring him back to the US for the surgery. During a stop-over in London, Bob begins to check his email when he sees an email that reads from the White House. The author thought it was a joke but it was for real. The boy who was standing in the Congo 2 days before is now standing in the oval office. They took him to the hospital and got him all fixed up (which is a miracle in its own right). He was brought back to Uganda and he and his mom have tea with the first lady.
God is showing so much grace and how good He is. How he wants to use and can use us, if we let him. Bob Goff finishes the segment with this, “Do whatever it is that you are good at and see how God will bring it into focus.”
Over the past few months, I feel God keeps reminding me of the big ways He can and has worked. It is very easy for me to try to confine God instead of full out trusting Him to work. I keep being reminded of stories like the Israelites marching around Jericho and blowing their trumpets or so many battles when the Israelites were completely outnumbered by a huge amount, yet God did these things so that when there was victory, they knew it was only because of God. That all glory belongs to Him.
So while there have been some pretty amazing things happen the past few months with healing and finances, God was showing me He is in control and how He still does big things in our lives. It didn’t have anything to do with doctors or my talents or abilities or anything that I did or what others did. It all came down to what God did. All glory is His.
Going back to the story, it comes down to listening to God and letting God use you. We don’t always know what our passion is or what we are good at, I for one still struggle with the talents, gifts and abilities the Lord has blessed me with. But in those times where God calls us to do something, to reach out in some way, to take action, that is when we need to. Sometimes I think “if I do this, will anything even happen?” but the thing is, that is my way of not letting God use me and confining Him in my life. Who knows how God can use something so simple or small or seemingly unimportant and use it for something big.
I was left with this a few moments ago. I was checking my Bible app for a verse when the verse of the day came up, Romans 12:2. It spoke about what I was trying to get at. Be open to what God calls me to each day and just see how He will use me. Listen. Simply listen and obey.
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2 (MESSAGE, italics mine)