Relying on God’s power

As we draw to the end of the month, we also come to the final session of our four-week look at how we can be more effective in our ‘call to community’. It’s a call to courageously bring the light of the good news of Jesus Christ through loving and serving, befriending and inviting; but it is also a summons to enter into new places and engage with different people.

While this might present a something of a scary challenge, let’s remember that we are not in this alone; and we are not the first Christians to feel daunted! The reality is that we really only grow in our faith when we are prepared to enter into those places where we are stretched and caused to rely on God’s power and strength.

Even the Lord Jesus adhered to this principle. I’ve always been impressed by the only boyhood account of Christ that is recorded in the gospels. Luke records a journey home from Jerusalem, where Jesus, his family, and probably the whole community, have been celebrating the Passover. Jesus decides to stay where the action is, in Jerusalem, and engage with the teachers in the Temple courts! His parents are understandably frantic, but my point is this: even as a twelve-year-old boy, Jesus never played it safe!

If our lives lack challenge; motivation and direction then I encourage you, read the stories of Jesus again; let the call of God resonate afresh and allow him to direct you to some new places and conversations; when God calls, he enables!