4-17-22 Gotta Do It
Quote: “Someone, somewhere, is depending on you to do what God has called you to do.”
As we go through our day to day lives, it is hard to wrap our mind around the fact that anything we do could have an impact on thousands of other people on the planet. Most of our actions don’t affect too many people. If I forget to put the garbage out by the side of the road, the sanitation department truck simply passes by my house. If I decide not to go to church, I might have a few friends that text to say they missed me. If I’m a few minutes late for work, I’ve got 21 kids who would just stand patiently outside my classroom door.
But some of our actions could end up affecting hundreds or thousands of people. Taking my eyes off the road for even a second could cause a traffic accident, which would lead to needing help from police departments, hospitals, car insurance companies, auto body shops, or even funeral homes. What we do matters. The choices we make affect more than just us.
The best example I have of this in the Bible is the story of Esther. It’s a very short book of the Bible – only one of two of the 66 books named after women. It’s a beautiful story. Esther goes from being a regular girl to queen because she went through a vigorous vetting process without complaining. It says she won everyone’s favor with her character. So when you get to chapter 4, she is now being met with a very tough decision. There is a death threat against her family and her cousin asks her to beg the king to save her people.
He says to her in Esther 4:14, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place…” He knew that God would choose someone else to save her people if Esther wasn’t brave. If God wants something to happen, it will happen. There is nothing we can do to stop God’s plans. So if you are ever stuck at a fork in the road about whether you are going to obey something that God has asked you to do – just know he will ask someone else if you say no. He is God. He knows billions of people!
I don’t know about you but I want him to choose me to impact the planet! I want to have that conversation, go on that coffee date, make that appointment, do that scary thing, say “yes”, say “no” – whatever God wants me to do. I don’t want him to pass me by! I want to make him proud and to know he can count on me to get it done. Because I know if I obey him with the small things, he’s going to give me bigger and mightier things to do on this planet.
I want to be all in.
People are counting on us. God is calling us to do the scary, uncomfortable, unconventional, and outside-of-the-box things that most people say “No way!” to. I want to be used by him. I want to help, serve, lead, pray, go, plan, and love. The world needs more “others focused” people. In a world that says take care of yourself, do the opposite. Love on others so much that you forget about your own needs and then let God take care of you.
The rest of the verse is the best part. The end of Esther 4:14 says, “…And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” In other words, what if the world is counting on you to accept that challenge and obey God? What if you were born for this moment? Esther does obey and ends up saving the Jewish people from being exiled. And guess who comes way, way, way down in the lineage of her people? Yep you guessed it – Jesus! One small act of obedience changed the world.
Sometimes you just gotta jump in the water rather than dipping your toe in. Someone you don’t even know could be affected by your obedience if God calls you to do something. You just never know.
If God calls you to it, he will pull you through it! But you gotta step up and do it!
