worthy

this passage is from Paul's 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 11-12



And so we keep praying for you that God will make you worthy of the life to which He called you.

And we pray that God, by His power, will fulfill all your good intentions & faithful deeds.

Then everyone will give honor to the name of our Lord Jesus because of you,

     & you will be honored along with Him.

This is all possible because of the undeserved favor of our God & Lord Jesus Christ.



It was early June.

House of Grace was meeting downtown @ The Warehouse.

Our worship leader at Christ Chapel has come with a big team to lead that night.

One of the campus pastors was there to speak.

And that was the night our numbers spiked & held - we had a ridiculous amount of people there that night.

It was a magical night, the genesis of a magical season - halcyon days I'll never forget & for which I'll always be supremely thankful.



I remember toward the end of worship wondering how in the world I was gonna transition out of worship.

Now let's be honest here - I was known & love by those who were a part of House of Grace, but we all knew that I didn't have a whole lot of gifting when it came to doing transitions.

So as I'm standing there, waiting for worship to wrap up, I'm getting more & more concerned, because that night our worship was pretty fine, pretty focused, & really, really well led.

And right after worship, the person who was to speak was pretty good at that.

So let's just say I was feeling a like an onion in a tulip patch ;-) LOL

But this voice inside my head reminded me of part of a verse I'd read a few days before.


"...God will make you worthy of the life to which He called you..."


Well, I thought at the time, well, you'd better, God - I'm running with the big dogs right now.


So, when worship finished, I walked up to the mike & started to talk.

I was almost immediately aware that i wasn't the one doing the talking - God had chosen to favor me & really speak through me.

     (iow, He hauled my butt out of a sling, again!)


What was so hilarious was the faces of some of those 20somethings who came every week.

They kept looking at me, & at each other, with this startled look of "what in the world?!!!"

We ALL knew it wasn't me who was talking - It was God.


After worship, we took a short break to reconfigure the platform.

More than one person can up to me during the break & laughingly said things like, "where in the world did THAT come from?!"

And we all agreed it had to be God, because I ain't that good.

One guy, who loves me dearly & is tremendously mischievous, came up to me & said, "Well, I guess if God can speak through Balaam's donkey, He can speak through you.

We both laughed...

...I also hit him

;-)



I said all that to say this...


I don't know your situation.

Maybe you feel totally inadequate, like I felt that night.

God doesn't call us to be &/or do something & then leave us out there to fend for ourselves.

He can, does, & will "make (us) worthy of the life to which He called (us)".

All we have to do is walk toward what we believe we're called to be & do for Him, & He will work in & through us.


How can I be so sure of that?

Because I've been living it for over 4 decades.