Writers Info Network: strength

Marching Orders for WIN Communications and Writers Information Network

Mission Statement: "Help me, O God, to do my best to help other people to accomplish and to achieve, knowing that their contribution is what God is trying to give the world." --from Florence Sims, 1873-1923, who started the YWCA. (Claimed for WIN, November 15, 2004)

Mandate: "Now go and write these words. Write them in a book. They will stand until the end of times as a witness" (Isaiah 30:8 NLT).

Message: "The Lord gives the Word [of power]; the women who hear and publish [the news] are a great host" (Psalm 68:10-11 AMP).

Friday, January 21, 2011

Are You Measuring Up to Your Calling?

How often have we felt like praying Jeremiah's prayer: "I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle" (Jeremiah 10:23-24 NLT).

Hudson Taylor gave us a wise perspective on life when he said: "I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked God if I might help Him. I ended up by asking him to do His work through me."

If we run the race set before us, engaging in duties God-appointed and not self-chosen, and bestowing all our energies, and that cheerfully, on the God-appointed tasks and sorrows, then may we rest in full assurance that our strength shall never fail, that our fruit shall remain, that our life shall, though apparently fragmentary, be complete, that we shall reach the end, and be counted faithful in that day. -- Adolph Saphir

This summer I was able to sit under the teaching of my favorite author at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This humble man of God's writings have impacted every part of my life--he practices what he preaches. He believes that "what I do and achieve cannot be the core of what I am. While God calls me to partnership with Him in changing the world, He first of all loves me for who I am. In fact, He loves me in all my vulnerability and need. ... I am an amazingly loved person by the God of all grace and mercy, and as such I can confidently live to fully please God in all that I do." -- Charles Ringma (Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellus)

Ringma goes on to remind us, "while we may celebrate the work of our hands as God's gift, we should never depend on it. For it is God alone who sustains us and He ought to be the focus of our adoration."

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Beginning A New Journey

"No one walks our journey for us and no one else's pace is appropriate for us. It is our journey. We walk through life as unique persons created by God." --Walter C. Wright (Mentoring)

When we're still and hear the voice calling us to take on new challenges, it can be very unsettling. It may cause us to struggle knowing that we'll have to face the pain of letting go of old friends, places, and things in order to embrace the new calling.

What it boils down to is a matter of trust. Do we trust a Sovereign God enough to believe he always has our best interests in mind? Do we believe he has a perfect plan for our life? Do we really understand that in the center of his perfect will for us is the only place we'll find lasting peace and joy?

And it is this joy which comes from God that gives us the strength to do whatever he ask, to go wherever he calls, to endure and embrace whatever comes our way.

As we go out on our new journey with the joy of the Lord, we will be able to affirm to others: "Surely he has done great things! Do not be afraid ... be glad and rejoice" (Joel 2:21 TNIV).