JUST NEVER KNOW

Have you thanked Him?
Have you praised Him?
Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?
Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?
1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)
1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

You just never know...

It was “FREEDOM on the road day” yesterday. The good news is there are folks seeking deliverance and recovery. The bad news is they are sometimes pretty “far flung”. So it was a busy day of back and forth for sure!
Yet it was when I returned late in the day to the “friendly confines” of the JEREMIAH TREE, my real reason for waking up yesterday was realized.

What was scheduled as an appointment to discuss some volunteer opportunities with a new friend made at last Sunday's talk suddenly took an most unexpected turn.

Instead of a volunteer discussion, our conversation shifted to his 2 year battle with depression, his long and trying experiment with medications, and the devastating impact of a job loss. He was fragile, tired, confused, and beaten. Someone told him volunteering would get him out of his funk. And while I completely agree and can testify to the power of service, yesterday wasn’t the day for that discussion. Rather yesterday was one of these days…

2 Corinthians 1:4-5
…before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.

That was why GOD got me up yesterday. To be there.

It was to share “my story”. It was to share GOD’s amazing impact on my lengthy battle with depression, anxiety, missed expectations, suicidal considerations and addiction. It was to share the amazing and trans-formative power of GOD’s WORD on my life, the gift of my loving support structure and the power of speaking truth into my life. It was to be quick with a tissue, a passage, a promise, a hope, and a possibility.

That is why GOD got me up yesterday.
You see you just never know.

My calendar didn’t have the entry “share the story” on it. My calendar didn’t have “make a copy of the ‘Who I am in Christ’ resource for J.E.”. My calendar didn’t have “preach a sermon about spiritual identity”, “share the truth of John 10:10, the hope that is John 16:33 and the promise of Jeremiah 29:11.”

I didn’t have any of that on my radar, in my book or on my mind.
Yet GOD did.

He put me in a place where that was needed, where that was necessary and where I needed to be ready to respond.

GOD will do that.
You just never know.

So let me ask you a quick question this morning. Are you ready to share “your story”? Do you have those "impact" passages on the tip of your tongue and ready to share?
Now before we go too far, I’m not tooting my own horn. That is not the intent.

Rather I am offering encouragement. GOD trusts each of us to be His hands and feet each day; to live lives of hope and to share His promise!

“Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good”… ~Saint Teresa of Avila
We must be ready each and every day to fill that role!

Just because our calendars or to do lists don’t have “share our story or offer the hope that is CHRIST” on it does not give us a pass. We must be READY at all times to be available for those GOD intersects us with. We must be quick to share our experiences, pull nuggets of hope and truth from HIS WORD to encourage and edify.

CHRIST is counting on us!

So are you ready with your story today? Can you quickly tell another about GOD’s impact on the hard times of your life? How about that WORD...have it ready?
I hope so.

Because you just never know…

I love you all!
Have a blessed weekend.
Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney