All we can Do

Some of you know that I enjoy and am very much encouraged by listening to John Piper. I have listened to some of his sermons 1o times in a row before moving on to the next. Let's just say that sometimes I am easily distracted and before I move on I want to make sure I have picked up every kernel and put it into my bag.

I was listening to his sermon "A Fast for Waters that do not Fail" and was encouraged by the story of Doug Nichols. J.Piper is in Minnesota and he is talking about this Doug Nichols guy. I wanted to see if Doug was still alive, so I Googled him. To my amazement he is not only still alive but he lives about a half hour from me.

I started to read up on what he has been doing and looked at his schedule of appearances and was drawn to some of the things he has said. One thing that really stuck out to me was in answer to the question, "What can we do?"- His answer-"All we can do".

This is really short and seems almost like a sarcastic answer, but isn't this what God has called us to do? There is much to do everywhere around us, and God has NOT called us to every ministry, everywhere in the world. He has called us to do everything we can do, with all His strength, with all His wisdom provided, with His view of the harvest and that is all.

Isn't it awesome that God has not only planned all the work for us to do from eternity past, but He gives all we need to do every work that He has planned. He has knitted us together perfectly, so when we do follow His leading to the work, we will be perfectly suited to do it. He is not going to ask me to be John MacArthur, because He has not equipped me to be him.

So what does that mean to you and I today? We must be available and observant to God's leading, we must be humble in our expectation of where He might be choosing to use us, we must be learning and growing, because we don't know where that is going to be, and we must be willing and ready to do whatever that work is. That work might be to be the ALL that God would have you do as a home school mom and a wife with little time to minister in the local body except for being a great example of those things. It might also mean doing ALL that you can do in giving your entire life away as a missionary to China or Africa and He will have equipped you perfectly for that work as much as anything else.

The Body has many parts and none are less or more important than the next, but the little toe has to be as good of a little toe as it can be so that the head doesn't have to take the time to make sure the little toe is going to do its part. And the leg has to make sure it is not running the little toe into the coffee table all the time. A weak attempt at humor and illustration.

We need to go and do all we can where God leads us and be thankful that He is willing to use us anywhere, for anything that might be of benefit to His Work. We also need to rejoice and rest in the fact that He equips us to do everything. Don't get stressed out that you are not able to do this or that, just do what He has you doing as unto the Lord and He will take care of the rest.