Send M.E.

I had a completely different message in mind for today. It was based off a scripture that God had given me earlier in the week and I was really working through it. I don’t know, maybe God will let it come forth next week. However, today you get this message that God placed in my spiritual lap yesterday at church.

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Yesterday I decided to visit another local church instead of attending service at my church. I love my church but we always talk about “the greater faith community” and I wanted to take a moment to visit one of those churches. As God would have it, yesterday was Missions Day at that church and they were talking about their completed mission trips from 2019. I sat in awe because I have always wanted to serve on a missions trip… but it hasn’t happened yet. As I sat briefly in my own thoughts, God provided somewhat of an answer:

You don’t need to go out of the country to serve.

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Prior to that sermon message, I thought that the completion of a missions trip meant boarding a plane, traveling to a remote part of a country, and telling people who don’t look like me about my Father. But when God spoke to me, I saw what I had not seen before… that I need to serve here. I need to do more for people in front of me before God can ever trust me to go out to His children in other parts of the world. Yes, the need for mission trips is great because we have so much that others do not have and we have so much to give… but God is calling me to start here.

So, I am starting.

I do not know what this looks like but I know that I am going to follow two key quotes that God gave me in service yesterday:

• 

And

Here I am; send me.

Isaiah 6:8

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Today’s message is intentionally very brief because it does not take a whole lot of words or fancy platitudes to convey the point that we are all servants of God and we are all called to serve His sheep. Yes, we are all called to serve, it’s just that some of us have been called to serve outside of our neighborhood.

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Beloved, as you go throughout your Monday, your week, and your life, I want you to think on this: What am I doing in my current life to tell others about God? And then once you reach that answer, ponder this: What am I doing in my current life to SHOW them God?

If you are like me, your answers will vary because we can often talk a good game but fail at living that way. Personally, I struggle with controlling my attitude and temper. When I am in my feelings, it shows and I don’t think I am a shining example of God’s love. I fall and I make frequent mistakes that make it hard for me to truly think that my actions match my words. So when I think of why God hasn’t called me to tell others about Him in a foreign land, I think it’s because I am not consistently showing people here who God is. If I cannot spread His Gospel through words and actions here, then how can He trust me to do it elsewhere?

That question led me back to Isaiah 6:8 with this prayer:

Father, I am imperfect. I battle addictions, judge knowingly and unknowingly, and I feel slighted when life doesn’t go the way that I want it to. I am not worthy of You, Your love, or Your grace, yet You offer each in abundance to a sinner like me. Thank You, Lord, for loving me beyond and in spite of my faults. As I think of my shortcomings, I realize that while my actions don’t line up, my heart yearns to serve You. Continue to work in me, Lord, and transform my life so that others may come to know you through my hands and heart. Abba, You have much labor in the fields but few laborers to do the work. Whom shall You send and who will do the work? Here I am, Lord; send M.E.

Be blessed.