I just got home from a church service and am just amazed by God and how good it is to obey him.
My church has an internet church ministry called Open Arms – for all those people surfing the web, those afraid to cross a church threshold for whatever reason, people that just haven’t found a local church yet, or Christians wanting extra teaching and encouragement. A message is aired every Sunday, but every first Wednesday of the month we have a live church service that gets filmed, and that was today.
I was at home getting ready to go but somehow killing a lot of time doing nothing, even though I had felt like I should really go early. I ended up running late, especially since I had been asked to translate and wanted to talk to the speaker beforehand. I was almost there and just riding my bike through a nice little housing area when I saw people walk by and felt I should stop and invite them to come. It was late and I felt awkward, so I kept going. But the feeling didn’t go away and it suddenly struck me as silly to go to a church service meant to bless other people, but go alone. And thinking back of times when I didn’t listen to the nudge of the Holy Spirit and times when I did, the latter always worked out better. I did not want to end up asking myself what might have happened if I had had the guts to be obedient.
So I slowed down and asked a lady by the side of the road if she already had plans for the evening – she did. So I told her she’d be missing out on an incredible church service but could watch it online later if she wanted to…There was a man standing by his car so I asked him, but he said that it’s not his kind of thing and he already had plans too. I went down the street a bit and asked another lady, but she also declined. Failure. But not really, because the funny thing was that I just felt so happy for having obeyed my Heavenly Father and I knew that it was just about the obedience for me – the rest is up to him. Jesus once said that those who love him do the will of the Father who sent him. So love and obedience goes together! If God’s amazing grace inspires a deep love in me then my desire is for that love to lead me to obedience. To stop asking why? or how? or really? and to just walk in step with the Holy Spirit.
And God’s response never ceases to surprise and overwhelm me. It was such a beautiful evening – and the fourth person I asked came. He was from Texas and could even appreciate the translation =) God is amazing.
Let’s not have to wonder what might have happened…let’s walk in faith, love and obedience and expect great things from God!
