Bread for the Journey

Philippians 4:13, I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. (NIV)

As women I think we can all relate to having times in our life that we feel "less than" or "inadequate".

As a child, I so very much wanted to be good "at something", anything. I wasn't really smart. I worked hard in school to get average marks. I wasn't athletic, I wasn't particularly musical. Who was I?  What was I here for? These feelings of inadequacy went with me throughout my early life and on occasion, still sneak up on me today. As a young woman in my late 20's, I felt a strong pull to be involved in a ministry serving women facing a crisis pregnancy. Again the question popped into my mind, what do I have to offer? I don't have a particular skill or talent; I never experienced such a crisis personally. How could I relate? How could I serve in this ministry when I don't have a higher education or expertise? What do I have to offer? Yet this urgency, this calling I felt wouldn't quiet in my spirit. I remembered the words to a song....

Just ordinary people
God uses ordinary people
He chooses people just like me and you
Who are willing to do as He commands

God uses people that will give Him all
No matter how small your all may seem to you
Because little becomes much
As you place it in the Masters hand

 (Lyrics by Mom Winans)

 
I prayed a simple prayer that if this truly was a calling I felt, that God would honor my desire to serve Him and give me the courage to say yes. It was saying that yes that opened my world to so many things in my life I never have thought possible. I use this prayer every time a possibility of service or an opportunity comes up, even when I was asked to join Mennonite Girls Can Cook.

My point in sharing this with you is that God uses ordinary people like you and me, who offer small and humble gifts and He turns them into something for His greater purpose.  Not so that we may shine, but that He shines through the work He does in and through us.  Are you ready to say yes?

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