Don't conserve or downsize God
I'm posting here something I read and wrote in September 2015, after being asked to reduce my job to half time.
I just thought it was really inspirational and meaningful for all of us as we think about telling people about Jesus and about how we serve Him and the nations in our weakness.
"I think, like the trumpet call in Isaiah 58:1, we have a simple, clear and vitally important message which is to call people to greater intimacy with Jesus. As we experience the presence of Immanuel and teach others to find Jesus we see Him transform their lives in a simple process.
What I believe God is calling from me in the future is certainly out of the comfort zone, it's potentially messy and a big unknown. But I can't do much else than obey because I am committed for the rest of my life to serving Jesus and if that is launching out into deep water, or in another context, then thank goodness He knows where the fish are."
Isaiah 54 continues to unfold God’s counsel as He instructs the desolate to enlarge, stretch, expand, and advance (v. 2). God does not want merely a slight improvement for His people but a complete turnaround. We have to be careful that we don’t downsize God’s ability and become satisfied too easily. I know how tempting it can be to take a small success as the ceiling for what God wants to do. We are grateful for the two or three we have reached, but we can’t allow that to become the capacity level at which we settle when God has the nations in His heart. We say size doesn't matter, but actually it does because we should be seeing people added to His church daily. We have to be careful not to downsize the Great Commission to one that is more manageable.
On too many occasions, I have allowed a sensible theology that said, “When the money comes in, then we will go out; when the right people join our ministry, then we will advance to reach more people.” The enemy loves sensible planning, as it is no threat to his kingdom. If you downsize yourself, the enemy will become involved in your ministry, sending you more problems to manage and more people to help you keep things tidy. Yet there is nothing about God that downsizes, and He certainly isn't tidy! His strategies often do not seem sensible or His counsel logical.
God asked an elderly couple, who were ready for retirement, to have a baby. He instructed a stuttering shepherd to speak to Pharaoh and to deliver an entire nation. He told a boy on a hillside to leave the sheep and kill a giant. He chose a teenage girl to carry the Savior of the world.
God doesn't downscale people; He super-sizes them. He removes their comfort zones and throws them into the unknown, where His capacity overshadows their ability and they participate in the turnaround ministry of the God they serve.
Turnaround Go by Charlotte Gambill
As we catch fish in Myanmar would you pray that we can discern the right doors to go through as many are open but not all will be the best ones to enter!