God’s Glory

Have you ever thought about this–maybe God allows the “odds to be stacked against us” so that we can overcome our fears…step up and step out….so that He gets the Glory and we know it was His power….and His hand that brought us to the place of overcoming and achieving?! Maybe, too, so that others would see His hand in our lives….not just us?!

The longer I study Scripture and the older I get….the more I understand that “my understanding is limited”. I see more clearly the need to put myself in the position of listening to God and taking steps even when it doesn’t make human sense. If God tells me to do it…..then JUST DO IT! It has been in those times of obedience, even coupled with the feelings of fear…..but acting in the face of fear….when I have truly seen, felt, and experienced God’s hand. Especially if any human in my life was a “naysayer” or thought I was a little crazy.

I am encouraged through Scripture knowing many people thought David and Noah were crazy….when they obeyed God. I am certainly not David or Noah [I can’t build a boat]….but God is the same God with the same character…and He still has David and Noah kinds of things to be done!

Yes…… the longer I live and the closer I draw to God…on a daily basis….the more God instructs me to do things that I say to myself and to God, “Really?….You really want me to do that? Or say this? Or go there?” For me personally…I have asked God to “use me” to do this and I have grown to understand….I am going to have to be “comfortable being uncomfortable!”

To truly experience the “hand of God” in my life…I cannot grow….living in a “comfort zone”…always being able to predict outcomes…or seeing the end when I begin. Sometimes….it keeps me up at night praying…because I know to truly trust and obey comes with a price of “blindly trusting.” Not seeing the “outcome”….living in the realm of taking the events in life…and surrendering my “reactions” to God and then and only then seeing the “OUTCOME”….and trusting…the OUTCOME to God.

I am often asked now….”How was your speaking engagement?” Or, “How many books have you sold?” I have learned the important thing….is surrender and obedience…and doing my part which is studying….praying…..preparing……then stepping….I always say after a speaking engagement…”It went the way God planned no matter how I feel that I did.” I truly have to trust God for the OUTCOME!

If you are a “traveling public speaker,” you learn very quickly there are many variables that can change at any moment…from audiences….to sound…to lighting….to physical locations….to traveling complications….to technology glitches….many, many variables. Understanding that being faithful to what God has told you to do and trusting HIM with all the variables is where you have to live……”that is being comfortable with the uncomfortable for me.”

The question I want to pose to you….is….Where has God called you to be “comfortable being uncomfortable?” I think Scripture reveals that He calls all Christians to live in the realm of uncomfortable. Just look at the suffering of Christ in Matthew 26:38-39. “Then he said to them [the disciples], ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.’ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.'” Jesus was in an uncomfortable place.

The uncomfortable is where FAITH in HIM can thrive and GROW! There is an old aphorism: “NO guts, no glory.” When we don’t have the guts to step out in faith and chase obedience to an authentic life in Christ…then God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to HIM. As Isaiah 42:8 tells us, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”

So, I encourage you today….to examine your life…especially if you have a personal relationship with Jesus….and stretch out your hand….open the palm and extend it toward heaven and ask….”God where do you want me to become comfortable being uncomfortable?” Listen for the answer….then, “JUMP!”

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