Whenever we encounter any thoughts of inadequacy it really helps to rebuke and to keep stepping forward in faith. Oftentimes a simple step forward is what we need when we are attacked with those suggestive ideas that we are not capable of what we are told to do.
Today, however, was an exercise in humility, in the sense that I was bombarded with not just thoughts, but feelings - usually the feelings manifest when the thoughts come accompanied with actual situations which provoke the senses.
To say it simpler terms, I had all sorts of opportunities to speak and make a point today, and in my own mind, I failed to communicate effectively.
This made me question myself as to how I was really to function in the body of Christ. As I was walking through Bayanihan park today I saw all sorts of people doing all sorts of things - a dispatcher taking his last puff before barking to get more passengers. A lady doing her afternoon worship rituals. A street vendor and her son amusing each other with straws. Another lady lightly bumping her bag against me as she passed by in a hurry. More vendors selling fruits probably half-baked in the afternoon sun.
To imagine the seemingly intimidating call for us to minister to these people and countless more, addressing their unique lives one unique approach after another - it's pretty overwhelming to picture it, and especially more so when you're feeling unsure of your own abilities.
Thank God that we don't need to be anywhere special to talk to Him. That's what I did after seeing that playing on the iPhone and the laptop were definitely not helping (actually, shame on me for not heeding the call to pray before anything else). What's nice is that we can have peace in the fact that we can lift it all up to Him.
He may not answer right away, but our faith that He has heard us should be enough.
So I prayed, and then I joined a few brothers of mine in Christ in one last ministry stint today - one more than I was used to.
A family was led to Christ, and I was reminded of something - we should focus on addressing the need, in whatever way we can.
The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and whenever we think too much about ourselves, the temple is focused on itself and therefore is easily torn down. We MUST push to glorify the Lord through our faith by just doing the best in what we are told to do, fully aware of our weaknesses, and fully aware of the fact that our God is above it all.
2 Corinthians 12:9 But He said to me, "My grace is enough for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.
My prayer this evening is that we would always remember that though through Christ our lives were made to be worth living, we were saved to bring others to know and accept Him, and this task is definitely something we would always need His help in.
Philippians 3:10-15 My aim is to know Him, to experience the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings, and to be like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained this - that is, I have not already been perfected - but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore let those of us who are "perfect" embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.
That last verse hit hard. But praise God for His Word.
To God be all the glory!