GIVE IT A GO or GIVE PRESUMPTION THE BOOT

Perhaps your Christian background was similar to mine. We were taught how wrong it was to be presumptuous. So we waited for permission to serve, to go, to do. Then we waited to be told how it should be done. Then of course we waited for ‘God’s timing’, and spent a lot of time getting trained. Finally we waited for God to put cold, hard cash in our hands to do whatever it was, all the while hoping we weren’t blowing our own trumpet when we shared our dreams.

            I worried that I was presumptious in thinking I could write. I worried that I was too old to make a go of it without long years of writing experience behind me. I hoped God would just zap me and I’d find myself writing in a cloud of effortless glory.

            A couple of inspirational quotes had a strong impact on me. They are not Bible texts but both reflect biblical principle. The first one is from Andre Gide, the French novelist from the 19^th century. I’ve never read his work and this quote is all I know of him, but it speaks to me.  He said, “We do not discover new lands unless we’re willing to push the boat out from the shore.”  Pause and meditate.

            The other one is from that wonderful teacher and father in the faith, Bill Johnson. He says, “God loves risk-takers. It shows you’re willing to trust Him.” Not everyone is called to the foreign mission field; not everyone is called to write a book. But everyone is called to act on what you have a passion for – because that passion was planted in you before you were formed in your mother’s womb. It’s a passion God wants you to run with to extend His Kingdom on earth and promote His glory.

            In putting that passion to work for God and His kingdom, a strange thing happens. We die to self. This happens because it’s impossible to fulfil the drive of that inbuilt passion unless we put God’s kingdom and His righteousness first. When we acknowledge the drive in us, and accept we won’t fulfil it in our own strength, it becomes something effective and powerful.  What’s important is not what form the passion takes, but whether it’s harnessed to the kingdom and His righteousness! Baking cakes, knitting or driving a bus are just as likely to glorify God and serve His purpose as being a doctor or designing a church. We can make a business, a ministry, from anything and carry the love of God to the world.

            A final quote, this time from a fellow member at Christian Writers Downunder, Maree Cutler-Naroba.*   “Put the prophetic trumpet to your lips and blow it loud – take those ideas nestled in your heart and give it a go.”

*www.ideastopropelyou.com