Tuesday, March 1, 2011

"God Believes In You!"

In Matthew Chapter 4, God does something amazing. At the beginning of His Ministry on Earth, Jesus invites ordinary men to "Come Follow Him." Not only is Jesus inviting these guys on His journey to seek and save the lost, He is also telling them that He believes in them!

Few things have the power to change us as much as knowing that someone, believes in us. I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I have new pastor friend named Greg. Our family has been attending the church he preaches at for a little over a month now. He recently did a sermon series entitled, "I Believe In You," in which he talked about how important it is to realize that God believes in us, and how important it is for us to tell people close to us that we believe in them. This has become very real in my life.

Youth ministry is all I have known, since graduating college in 2002. I spent the past five years of my life giving my all into a youth ministry that I resigned from at the end of last year. The successes and failures of this ministry greatly affected my life. I realized over the past couple of months that part of the reason I left that ministry is that I didn't always believe in myself or feel like people believed in me. It's been a hard thing for me to deal with, because I realized that most of this was my fault. I did not trust God enough, but rather relied too much on my own power in regards to this ministry.

Naturally, because of this everything in my life suffered, the quality of the youth ministry, my teaching, my passion, my family life, and even my health. It breaks my heart to think about it now. I know cognitively that God believes in me, but practically I forget a lot. Too often the busyness and pace of life and ministry had me just getting things done,. rather than spending time in prayer asking God for wisdom and help.

That being said over the past month or so, I have had to trust God. I'm unemployed and my future and my family depend on God providing right now. It sounds scary, but it's been great! God keeps letting me know that He believes in me, and as I trust Him more and pray more, God just keeps being faithful. I have to thank Greg and the community at the church we have been attending as well. They have done so much to show me that God believes in me, and that they do too. Most of them probably have no idea how much kind comments they have said to me, or just asking my opinion on something youth ministry related has meant to me, my family, and our faith! This is one case were actions have truly been louder than words to me.

I want to encourage you, know that God believes in you! If you have given your life to Jesus, then God has given you the power of His Holy Spirit in your life, and He believes in you to be Jesus to others in this world! Live that way, and tell others close to you that you believe in them, more importantly, let your actions reflect that! Blessings.