Recently God has been speaking to me about purpose. Now this is not a new subject that God has brought to my attention. For years the purpose God has for my life and the church I pastor has been constantly before me. I have tried to fully understand his purpose and then live my life accordingly. To accomplish this my prayer has been "God what do you want to do in my life and in Grace church". Recently God is showing me that it is time to ask the question differently. The question today is "God what do you want to do in Ventura".
The question is different for me in several reasons. Frist, and most obvious, reasons is that my thinking has shifted from a limited view of a few people to over 100,000. In considering this question I have asked myself do I really believe that God wants to use me to work in the lives of over 100,000 people? That is a hard question because I do believe that God wants to work in Ventura, but I am not sure He wants to use me. Our church does not have the resources of some the larger churches in town. So I comfortably conclude "Surely God wants to use the larger churches to reach our city, after all they have the resources." There it was! The crux of my unbelief. My faith is in the resources of man, and not in God. My mind immediately went to different Bible passages that teach of trusting in God as opposed to what man deems important. I think of David and his battle with Goliath where God requested David to trust him with a rock and a sling to defeat the giant, or Joshua at the battle of Jericho where God requested Joshua to trust Him with a choir to bring down the mighty walls of the city, or Jesus taking unschooled ordinary men to trust Him and they would help change the world.
What if I decided to trust God? What if I decided to believe God that He can use me to help reach Ventura? What if what God has already deposited into Grace Church is exactly what God needs to reach this city? What if I were to stop trusting in the resources and abilities of men (me), and start trusting in God? What if I had kingdom thinking, then instead of a few rocks I would see a giant killing weapons? What if instead of seeing a few voices singing I would see hearts filled with praise that will bring down walls of separation in our city? What if instead of seeing ordinary men I would see that God can change our city as we surrender to Him?
What would you see if your thinking were to shift from the limited to the limitless possibilities of God?
What if...?
(to be continued)
