Step Out of Your Box

I want to encourage each of you in this room today to think big, but to do small things with great love as well! We need not wait for huge, cosmic solutions to the needs in our world today. If we do we’ll never do anything. The fact is, we can’t love the whole world at once. But we can love individuals and communities of people as God gives opportunities… that is, if we are insightful and courageous enough to take those opportunities! 

So, here is your opportunity to make a difference in your community. Here is your opportunity for God to use you! The fact is God chooses to do miracles through ordinary people like each of us, as we are willing to be used by Him. It’s all about how God can use each one of us, right where we are, as long as we are willing to break out of the boxes that bind us! 

Most of us gravitate toward boxes. It’s human nature. We seek what is comfortable and familiar. Sometimes we don’t want to move beyond the parameters of what we’ve always done. 

But Jesus is not one for boxes. He broke out of the tomb that held Him. He freed His friend Lazarus too. He threw the money lenders boxes right out of the Temple. In His earthly ministry He constantly pierced people’s puffy conventions and challenged their earthly comforts, luring them toward the risky business of eternal comfort.  He challenged the rich young ruler to give up the wealth that defined and confined him. He wooed the woman at the well to be free of the sin that bound her. 

And in one of the passages I love most, He called His disciples to “put out into the deep water.” In Luke 5, we are told that Christ’s friends had been in the shallows, and that’s where they wanted to stay.

“Come,” Jesus said.

Grumbling, they rowed to where the water was deep, and the lake was wide. They were in over their heads. Jesus rocked their boats. 

And then the shimmering fish leapt into their nets, the men strained to haul in the catch, and Peter fell at Jesus’ feet, overwhelmed by the power of the living God. 

In our own journeys with Jesus, is not the dynamic the same? He calls us further than we would choose to go on our own. Many times our journey does not conform to our acceptable parameters of what we are willing to trust. I have found time and time again in my life, that  If I had stuck with what was familiar and had stayed on solid ground, I would have missed the adventure that followed. 

That’s what Jesus does!  He woos us constantly to come farther in and farther up, to dive deeper into the river of His grace. Sometimes we resist. We like comfort and the illusion of being in control. But if we stick with what is familiar, we box our faith. It becomes human enterprise rather than godly exercise.

 

But if we take even the smallest steps of willingness…

“Oh Lord, I know not what lies ahead. I can’t control it. But I trust You!”…then we break out of the box! 

Then God takes us on new adventures we could have never imagined! 

Are you ready to make a difference?

Are you ready to be used by God?

 

For Speaking Availablity Contact:

Allen Tanner

chaplaintanner@yahoo.com

941-779-7335