Know Your Source - Galatians Start
I remember my third or fourth week into vocational ministry. I was overwhelmed with the reality of my responsibilities. I didn't feel confident enough to lead anyone having just graduated from college 4 weeks prior and landing in a growing church with the position of youth director and worship leader.
It was scary. I doubted myself. I doubted my place.
Right before a Sunday evening service at which I was to lead worship, I remember going to my desk and pulling out my Bible. It was a moment in which I felt God speak right to me from His Word. I wish it always happened this way, but I think my openess and my intense need had something to do with what I received that night.
Where did I happen to turn?
Galatians 1
The first verse was all I needed:
Galatians 1:1 (ESV) Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.
Paul is writing to a group of churches that have not only abandoned the Gospel he gave them, but they have also turned on him, disregarding him as an Apostle. He spends a good deal of time defending himself in chapters 1 and 2. But there can be no question, even this pillar of the church, this one the Holy Spirit used to write almost half of the New Testament had to fight the battle of self-perception.
He knew something that I needed to know that night in 1998. Jesus was his source. God sent him. Those who discredited him needed to know that deep down in his heart he believed it. And if God sent him and the message was God's and he was God's... nothing, NOTHING could stop him.
I love that.
I remember that short moment all this time later. I got up from my desk having been infused with such an energy in my soul. I led worship that night and the singing just took off. No, not because of me. Because I realized it wasn't up to me. Jesus was my source. He will always be the wind beneath the wings of His servants. Count on it.
PRAYER:
Father, here I am 15 years later. And I still have moments of self-doubt. Help me to remember, I'm not sent from men or through man, but through the LORD Jesus Christ! I can do all things through you Lord. Thank you for this reminder of that precious moment we shared so long ago. And I ask for more moments like that again and again.
It was scary. I doubted myself. I doubted my place.
Right before a Sunday evening service at which I was to lead worship, I remember going to my desk and pulling out my Bible. It was a moment in which I felt God speak right to me from His Word. I wish it always happened this way, but I think my openess and my intense need had something to do with what I received that night.
Where did I happen to turn?
Galatians 1
The first verse was all I needed:
Galatians 1:1 (ESV) Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.
Paul is writing to a group of churches that have not only abandoned the Gospel he gave them, but they have also turned on him, disregarding him as an Apostle. He spends a good deal of time defending himself in chapters 1 and 2. But there can be no question, even this pillar of the church, this one the Holy Spirit used to write almost half of the New Testament had to fight the battle of self-perception.
He knew something that I needed to know that night in 1998. Jesus was his source. God sent him. Those who discredited him needed to know that deep down in his heart he believed it. And if God sent him and the message was God's and he was God's... nothing, NOTHING could stop him.
I love that.
I remember that short moment all this time later. I got up from my desk having been infused with such an energy in my soul. I led worship that night and the singing just took off. No, not because of me. Because I realized it wasn't up to me. Jesus was my source. He will always be the wind beneath the wings of His servants. Count on it.
PRAYER:
Father, here I am 15 years later. And I still have moments of self-doubt. Help me to remember, I'm not sent from men or through man, but through the LORD Jesus Christ! I can do all things through you Lord. Thank you for this reminder of that precious moment we shared so long ago. And I ask for more moments like that again and again.
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