It’s not about me

2 November 2009

Heavenly Father, I bless Your Holy name! Jesus I worship you! Holy Spirit blessed be Your name! Please continue to be my every breath, I love You!

Have you ever experienced God telling you to do something and you hear His voice and instructions so clearly? You jump in and start following God’s instructions as given directly by Him. Everything falls into place, and you get excited about how God’s work unfolds. Then, coming to the last part of the preparations things start to fall apart. You start to think: “Is it me?” You start to doubt: “Did I hear God’s instructions clearly, did I hear at all?” You start doubting your faith, your ability and inevitably yourself. In the end things don’t happen at all as you have planned it, hence you feel like a failure and even say to yourself: “What will the people think of me?”

Dear reader, have you ever gone through anything like this? Have you ever started something, put in so much effort, only to be disappointed in the end? For some it might have been something like organising a big event, to others it might have been writing a good speech for school or even planning a project at work, only to be let down in the final result or outcome. Ever felt like that? I surely have, more than once in my life and I know it is not a nice feeling.

I have taken some time after each of these experiences and thought it through. The first reaction is that I have failed everyone, God, my friends, family and myself. But then I started thinking about it again. Satan wants me to feel like that, to think negatively, to feel negatively. Remember dear reader, he is out there to bring destruction and lives to get us to a point of bringing ourselves down. So firstly recognise your enemy! He is there and tries his utmost to bring you down. The truth is, if you have given your heart to Christ, You are a success! Secondly, start to unpack the situation that has occurred and start asking yourself the following questions:

• How much prayer has gone into this? Hence, my relationship with Jesus has grown in depth.

• How many people have I met and talked to, whether the public, friends, school mates, colleagues or my own family members? Hence, I have touched lives to the degree that when I approached each and every one, the light of Jesus in me was carried over to others.

• Was I obedient to God’s instructions? If yes, I have grown in faith.

Dear reader, who did you do it for. Who did you have in mind when you followed God’s instructions? The project, the speech, the event? Was it about the project, the speech, the event or the people’s lives you have touched? You see, it is not about me, you or the event, project or speech. It is about faith, obedience and trusting God to work in people’s lives. So whether you think you were successful or whether you think you failed, you have missed the point. You see, it’s about God’s work through you and the lives that have been changed.

We so often measure success to our success and standards and forget that success comes in the smallest of things. I serve at old age homes and love to care for the elderly. Sometimes I’m so tired and don’t even feel like going to visit. However, when I walk in there and just give a smile, a hug or simply by just being there not even saying a word, has contributed to the success of that persons day, perhaps even their week. All God asks of us is to hear, act in faith and believe in his miracles through us, without expecting any visible results. It comes down to one thing for me, humbleness. Let’s humble ourselves and allow God to work in and through us. When we feel that we have put in so much time, money and effort without seeing any success, let’s remember who it was for!

Dear reader, I just felt that I had to share this with you, for I so easily get negative when things don’t work out for ME, forgetting that it was never meant to be about ME! Let’s stay focussed on our purpose in life, our goal set by Jesus and never believe satan’s lies when he wants us to think that we have laboured for nothing. You can read the following scriptures that will substantiate my reasoning in this article and I trust it will help you also to open your eyes, like mine has been opened.

James 1:1 – 4, James 4: 6 -10, James 4: 13 – 17, Phil 2:1 – 18

Remember, it’s not about you and me!

With lots of love in Jesus Name

Princess K