God gave me you...

These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.  Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.

Luke 10:2-3 NLT

Today as I was searching for the perfect verses for this message, Luke 10:2 came up. I opened up chapter 10 to read above and below it. My first response was confusion...I read it again and this time I listened to the Spirit. I love that God will generously give of truth to me, without hesitation. These are Jesus' instructions to the disciples He sent out. There is a lot of great instruction in this chapter. I could go on and on, I was just confused at first what this had to do with the message title He gave me. Then I understood, Holy Spirit has a way of bringing God's understanding my way, when I stop and listen.

Whether the "workers" are sent from God, or satan, they are there for a reason. The only reason God allows them into my story is so He can use them to teach me. They will serve His purpose, with or without them knowing that. They don't have to understand, or even know God for Him to work His purpose through them. The one message I don't want to miss in these words Jesus, Himself, spoke to His disciples and those who stopped to listen, is that "the harvest is great, but the workers are few." this powerful truth is followed up by the perfect instruction, "So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields." This just hit me out of nowhere...ask for more workers??? 

When I think of workers from God I think of those people who just shine Jesus...He is definitely the Lord of their lives, no doubt. Reading this with His Spirit...well it brought fresh understanding for me. These verses may mean something completely different to me later, or may mean something completely different to you. For me today, this message is about loving and appreciating ALL the "workers" God uses in my life to mold me and transform me. The ones I love and the ones I "try" to love. For God there is NO difference between them. This is what He's teaching me. So when Jesus gives the instructions to pray to God and ask for more "workers," He's not saying to only ask for the easy people. He's saying ask for ALL people. In fact, several verses down in Luke 10:25-29, it says...

One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus doesn't say, Love the nice people who believe the way you do, and don't push your buttons. When the religious expert answered His question, Jesus told him, "Right!" Jesus told him he was right, he gave the right answer...and yet the first thing the man did was try to "define" who he was to love.

 I see me in this question so many times. There are so many of those God calls my "neighbors" that I would be so much happier without ever having cross my path. I know that if I was honest I would have to admit that there are some that have taught me so much about the sins I still harbor in the deepest parts of my heart. They have unknowingly held a mirror up to me in some of my darkest moments...not that they just mirrored my sins, God showed me where I was hiding the same sins. Where I was holding onto pieces of who I was before I found Him. Those moments are painful, they are brutally honest and they are some of the most teachable moments for God. 

A couple years ago I found this sign in the clearance aisle of Hobby Lobby...

For all this time I have looked at this sign to remind me that God gave him to me. I have only recently started to understand a deeper meaning. God doesn't just give me my family and friends...He gives me everyone who will bring His word to life in my story. Even those the enemy tries to use to distract me, will only be a distraction if I choose to only see the distraction. If I dig deeper and search for the teaching God has instead, I will find what God has for me. This is how God grows me up and matures my faith. God can also use my teaching moments to grow someone else's faith, to teach them. If I am humble enough to be transparent about my sin.

This new meaning has opened up many areas of me that I am realizing are still broken and lost. I have shared that I am pretty much constantly in prayer for God to place a guard at my lips and to be my self control. These 2 important parts of me are many times the ones I tend to hold onto, with a very tight grip. I struggle with being right. Many times I know what I am talking about, and in my prideful heart, I will make sure everyone else knows I was right too. In my desire to let them know that I am right, I never fail to tell them they were wrong. With the sweetest voice and the purest intentions...why are you laughing? Ok ok, I will be honest. I am definitely not the gentle type. I know my dad used to say "you're like a bull in a china closet." For years I have listened to answer, to be right. It's less about offending them and more about being right. So I am not "loving" them like Christ, it's more like teaching them...with an electric cattle prod. I don't know about you, but I learn less from the prod and much more from the love that Christ gives abundantly through those living for Him. 

Since I have found Jesus and I made the decision to follow Him, I have to make the choice to continuously surrender my heart and life to Him. When I truly surrender old, broken pieces of who I was, He doesn't throw those pieces away. No Jesus does not waste. He will pick them up and clean them up. He will teach me through the whole process. He can teach others through my learning too. What once was lost will again be found, only this time the power that the brokenness had over me and my life, well it will be replaced with God's wisdom and love. My willingness to share those hard lessons will ignite a gentle humbleness for me. A humility that will be less about talking and more about living. I will be able to let go of my need to be right and focus instead on living out God's greatest commands...like 

Some of the most painful lessons I have learned have been at the cost of relationships. I have cried over and chased after these people, I have even taken it upon myself to drag them back into my life. That never works for long. If it's me dragging them back or them dragging me back, it won't take long for the same divider to come back up. Some people I am not prepared to share a hard truth with and some people can't share a hard truth with me. That's ok. Those are the moments God is teaching me that I still have a ways to go. It's the times I rush ahead and try to teach His lesson for Him that I tend to struggle with the most. It's also in those times I am grateful for just how patient and merciful God is to me. Instead of giving up and turning away, He is faithful to stay and keep teaching me. 

When I go off on my own strength and share what I believe His message is with someone, more often than not they only hear condemnation and judgement from me. Then defense is my instant go to and I jump right in full force and try to push my understanding off on them. Almost always without any consideration of the consequences. If it's my understanding and not what God means they won't hear Him, just my demanding, judging words. The consequence this usually gets is they never hear the message God had for them. There have been times I am sure that have actually chased people away not only from me, but also from God. 

But God is faithful and forgiving. He will not give up on me. He is teaching me just how important words are. They have the power to give life, or death. In Matthew 12:36-37 it says this about the words that leave my mouth...

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

My words will leave a legacy. They will leave behind the love of Jesus, or the selfishness and hurt of a broken person. Words can be weapons of destruction, or life giving seeds. As I grow deeper into my relationship with God and I surrender the most painful and broken parts of who I was, I understand that He is not surprised by my desire to save others from the same pain. This truth brings with it an understanding for me...while the enemy comes to try to convince me that I'm less like Jesus than the world, God reminds me that I am His work in progress. He shows me that with each difficult lesson I learn from, the more transformation He makes in me. I know I still have a long way to go, but the more I dig into His teachings, the closer I get to my Poppa God. My prayer becomes, 

"Lord place a guard at my lips and keep showing me the way to self control. May I bless people and not curse them with my words. May they hear Your message in love, so they find You. Thank You Poppa for every person you give me."