This morning, I took my two-year-old granddaughter, Bella, to church with me. The nursery was not yet open when we arrived, so she pretty much made the rounds of the church lobby exploring. Behind a set of glass French doors in the lobby is an area of the children's church where two children were playing with a remote control toy. One side of the doors was locked in place, while the other side was open to the room where the children were. Bella stood with her face pressed to the glass of the locked side of the doors, watching the kids play. She wandered back and forth in the lobby several times, always returning to that latched door to gaze through the glass to see what they were doing. All the while, just one step to the side would have centered her in the door frame of the open door where she could have just walked on through to have a closer look or a turn to play.
Well, I immediately knew that there was a lesson in that observation for my Sunday blog, but I didn't know just how timely it was until I heard the sermon for this particular Sunday morning. Pastor Scott was preaching about demonstrating the love of God through serving and how we are to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. He stressed that we need to find our work and our purpose in the kingdom of God and to get involved in what God is doing instead of just sitting each Sunday morning in a chair, soaking up the music and the sermon and returning to "life as usual".
Just as Bella only needed to shift her perspective a little to the side to get the full experience of what she was watching, many people need to take one step to move from being an onlooker to a participant. God has so many blessings for us that are tied to our obedience. True love for God demands that we share our gifts and talents with others for their good. There really can be no true fulfillment in our lives until we are helping others reach toward what God has for them. All of us together, encouraging, loving, and serving each other, makes each of us spiritually strong, mature, healthy and productive.
That step may already be apparent to you. You may know exactly what God is calling you to do, but you've let the enemy tell you that you aren't worthy, that those church people really don't want you, that you'd be a hopeless failure at anything you attempt to do for God. It's time to start saying about yourself what God says about you. Read his Word and start declaring to the enemy what is really true about who you are.
Maybe you have no clue about where you can begin to serve. You'll need to pray, of course, and begin to think about the natural talents and abilities you have and how God could redeem those things for his purposes. Talk to leaders or Christian friends who will encourage you and ask good questions to help you find that place.
Whether you already know or have no idea, ask what needs to be done. Start by serving in the small things because actually there are no small things. What you do may not be seen or recognized, but all the little details that people see to in the kingdom come together to make one harmonious whole that leads people to Jesus - some for the first time, some just going a little deeper- but all of it is necessary and your faithfulness in doing it is rewarded by God.
Quit looking through the glass of a locked door. That lock wasn't meant for you and it can't keep you out if you just take that one step into your destiny in God.
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