"'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the Lord of
hosts." Zechariah 4:6
The Lord has brought this verse to my mind a lot this week. I woke up Sunday morning
with a pretty bad fever, and feeling like junk. It's funny, back in the States, I
rarely got sick. But these last few months in Ukraine, it seems like I'm
getting sick all the time. And as I was sick in bed most of this week, the Lord showed
me that it's not by my strength that I can minister to people, but by His strength.
Wednesday and Thursday, God opened a door for Emily and me to get into a
local high school to reach out to students. It was a really huge answer to
prayer. We were so excited to go, and I began to pray that I would start
feeling better so that I could go to the school. We were asked to speak at 5
different English classes in the two days. The teacher said it was totally fine
if we invited the students to our English club - and although we weren't allowed to
directly speak about God in the school - we were given permission to talk about
morals and ethics.
However, when Wednesday morning came, I was still feeling pretty horrible.
And that's when Zechariah 4:6 came to mind. God's Spirit was going to give me
strength to go and reach out to the students. God was asking me to rely fully
upon Him. So I did. And what an amazing time it was to see God work through us.
We made so many great connections with the students, as well as the English
teacher of this school. I was so encouraged by that day and when we were back
home, and I was laying in bed again feeling gross, I just kept thinking about
how He makes us strong in our weaknesses!
Another passage God revealed to me this past week spoke to me in a mighty
way. It is also from the same chapter in Zechariah.
"For who has despised the day of small things?" Zechariah
4:10
Sometimes, I get a glorified view or idea of missionary work. I often think
that missionaries should be involved with dozens of people getting saved daily.
However, in reality, and what I have learned, is that God is doing a huge work
through missions, but that work is often little by little. God uses the small
things, that seem insignificant to most, to transform lives. God is calling us
not to despise small things, but be faithful with the small things.
Thinking about the English classes we went to this week, in the grand scheme
of things, it's pretty small. I mean, we couldn't teach from the Bible, we
couldn't say Jesus' name; we weren't allowed to share the Gospel. No one got
saved. We just helped students with their English. Pretty small
huh? But, God opened a door for us to get into the schools. He told us to
go and be faithful, to teach English and meet students. Who knows what it will
lead to, but if we despised that small task that the Lord put before us, we may
never get to experience the fruit that comes from it down the road.
"Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you
have increased and you inherit the land." Exodus 23:30
God works little by little. As a missionary, I get frustrated if I don't see
instant results, and frustration often leads to quitting. But, we just have to be
faithful and realize that God is working little by little, using the small
things and the foolishness of the world, and by His Spirit, He will
transform lives. It is so amazing to see Him do His work.
I encourage you to
stay strong in the small things and be faithful with what the Lord has put in
front of you. If you do this, you will be blow away while you watch the Lord do His
amazing work!
God bless,
Byron
PS - Please pray for us as we travel to Mukachevo on Sunday (3/17). We plan on staying in this Western Ukrainian city for five days to pray over the city. We will be going there with a missionary couple (Joel and Katya Brown) from Kiev that we met a few months ago... They're planning to plant a Calvary Chapel in Mukachevo this summer. Please pray that the Lord blesses this time of prayer and fellowship in Mukachevo. If you're interested in knowing more about the church plant happening in Mukachevo, check out the Brown's website at the link below:
The Brown Family Website
Also, if the Lord leads you to give financial support to the Browns, you can do so on their website. Just click this link:
Financially Support the Browns
No comments:
Post a Comment