The first sermon of the new year, at The Assembly, was given by our pastor, Ron Woods. In his sermon he used alot of “P’s”.

He challanged us to see, in ourselves , the potential that God sees in us.

He encouraged us to live in the  awareness of Gods presence.

Then he said to do something practical……..this is where I drifted off into lala land, so I am really not sure where he was going with his point. I am sure he had a point, I just don’t know what it was because I was was not listening. ( sorry Pastor)

His last point was to passionately persue the potential God sees in you. At least I think that’s what it was. Anyway, it starts with a “p” and fits perfectly so that’s what I am going with.

[clearly he doesn’t have to worry about me stealing his sermon any time soon]

After the sermon I began to think about my own journey of living up to my potential. Have I lived up to my potential? Probably not. I know for a fact that I have used the words “I can’t” a million or so times in my life when God asked me to do something.

Why do we do this? Why do we say “I can’t” before God can even get it out of his mouth? Before we even try?

For me it’s fear. Fear of failure. Fear that someone will say “I knew you couldn’t do it”. Fear I will screw up royal!

Doubt is another culprit. Most of the time, we doubt that we have what it takes for the job at hand. When we doubt that God knows what’s best, we are really saying, “I don’t trust you Lord”.

If we could put fear, doubt and mistrust to the side and just act on what God has for us to do, the possibilities are endless.

Picture it like this. What if your car broke down on the side of the road. You get out, pop the hood and grab your tool box. You see the problem. It is totally fixable……if you have the right tool that is. You dig around in the box……. you know what you are looking for…….ah ha! There it is! Thank goodness! You reach for the tool and it says, “please don’t pick me! I don’t know how to fix a car!” You look at the tool and say, “you don’t need to know how to fix the car you just need to be a willing tool. I’ll do all the work.” You reach for the tool again and it says, “seriously, can’t you pick another tool for the job that would be better suited? maybe the shiny one over there, or the new and improved one.” “I don’t want another tool”, you reply, “I want to use you because you are the perfect tool for
the job, now quit fooling around, time is wasting!” As you pick it up the tool begins to whine and tell you all the reasons why this won’t work. All the while, you know perfectly well what you need. What you need is this tool to shut up whining and trust you so you can get the job done!

I am sure God gets frustrated with me when I am fearful or unwilling to do the job that He is asking me to do. Ten years ago, God told me, as plain as day, that I had a story to tell and that I should start writing it down. The first words to pop out of my mouth were, “I can’t write, I don’t know how”, and I never did, until now. I wish I would have had trusted Him and started a long time ago. I still struggle to write but boy do I love it! It’s my new passion! Thank you Lord!

There’s a job with your name on it.

Will you be God’s perfect tool for the job?