Empowered Through Him

God is great. God is all powerful. God loves to delegate.

So much time is spent questioning why God did or didn’t in our lives. So many people of faith speak counter to their convictions and challenge God because of the troubles in their lives or the lives of others.

My faith walk has taught me so much, one of which is the lyrics to the Matthew West song Do Something are so very true.

So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”
He said, “I did, I created you”

We are all called to serve in our own way. We are all called to make better for those around us. Be it in our office place, our schools, while in line at the grocery store; we are all empowered by Him to serve for Him.

I was fortunate to experience that today. As we visited Pasitos de Jesus, an orphanage for girls, there really wasn’t a whole lot for me to do, per se. My strong suit is not sitting at a table with little kids and doing crafts. I’m not exactly qualified to do the medical work other members of our team were performing. I am, however, capable of doing yard work and moving trash from here to there.

So with gardening sheers in hand, I set off to make a little bet the landscaping of the grounds of the orphanage. I was given a specific task; trim the hedges that line the wall. I didn’t have to pull the weeds or remove the dead limbs from the hedges, but since I was there already, I did. I didn’t have to pick up the trash that had accumulated at the bottom of the hedges, but I did anyway.

Later in the day we visited a village. We had previously purchased food to take and distribute to the members of that community. The plan was to give the individual a bag of food, have our team pray with them, and then continue with the distribution. As with most things in life, things don’t always exactly go as planned.

As it turned out, many of the recipients, although grateful, did not want to have to wait in order to take advantage of the gifts they were given. With twenty five bags, the queue for prayer grew quickly. Some started to leave.

We have only one pastor, but we have a team full of ministers, and God implored me to not let these people go home without a blessing. I felt empowered to step up to the next person in line, place my hand on their shoulder, and pray with them.

The Holy Spirit provided the words, and the fact I was able to deliver them in Spanish made them, I believe, a little more comforting to those receiving them. Other members of our team followed suit. All of the sudden, there were pockets of prayer going on. There were huddles of church in the middle of a village in the Dominican Republic.

We didn’t have to think about it. We didn’t have to question it. All we had to do was act.

As believers, we’re called to do His will here on earth. We’re called to step out of our particular comfort zone and extend a hand to someone in need. Believing in Christ is wonderful, but simply having faith does not make us Christ followers.

“So you see, faith by itself is not enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” – Jame 2:17