I sat in a meeting and looked around the room….I often ponder subtle things as God shows me His heart…. and inside I smiled. Whoever expected a ministry meeting to include 2 of the staff holding little babes recently born into the safety of the sweet foster home built by Refuge of Light. As I stepped to the platform to minister at Holly Brook Baptist Church, these little ones were acutely on my heart…as I said “what if this family had not answered the call?”Where would these babies be today? Thus…we see the significance of answering the call God has placed on your life.
You see, God had given me a message for this women’s retreat called ARISE…and had sent me to challenge them to use the tools Christ placed within them to go do what they had been called to do. We can be over taken at times with trivial pursuits, emotional struggles, and personal agendas…yet Christ has put a call to His people to ARISE..and likely the cost will be paramount. It will cost you fleshly dreams, material possessions, time, vacations, sleep, finances, and many tears. It will likely cost you friends, family, and your reputation. If these things are too precious to you….count the cost of following Jesus.
The faith of a family has impacted my life and heart. They have no idea I am writing this today but it’s what sings in my heart daily as I hug their necks. I have watched them give away worldly possessions, ownership of things, birthday parties with family members, and daily joys of grandchildren…..to rescue and restore girls from child sex trafficking. Worried little about house and home they have created one big family….that has embraced girls and little babies who no doubt would have been birthed in anything but what is now their safe environment. I watched as one little one smiled and laughed and then I watched as the ministry leaders were simply now grandparents and family to these precious ones. Their lives no longer were their own. How little we really understand the depth of Christ’s call. We desire to rescue many times but only at convenient times and in convenient ways. Yet I find little convenience in the Word as I study David running for his life many years, Esther preparing to enter the King’s presence without permission, and Christ saying “let the dead bury their own….anyone who can’t leave their father, mother, brother….isn’t worthy of being my disciple.” And then the response of the fishermen as they dropped their nets immediately to follow Christ. So I wonder…are we really fulfilling the heart of Jesus in our day?
We tend to give out of excess…but when was the last time you and I gave knowing it was our last weekly dime…or maybe it was the money we saved for a long awaited vacation and God called us to give it to a ministry to further the Kingdom….can I ask you have you ever given when it hurt? When it actually cost you something? When it made you unable to do or get something because you gave it away? We live in a world where giving must be accompanied with an IRS approved receipt or we cannot give….will Christ understand this when we stand in His presence? Will any of it matter then? Who is our Master after all….is it Christ? Whatever happened to giving expecting nothing in return….giving with the joy of Christ knowing it was counted towards Kingdom work. We act as if it’s ours…when it’s not ours at all…it’s His. He gives us more so we can do more for the Kingdom…not more for ourselves.
I ask God to search my own heart..for I long to do His bidding..but I know deep within the personal cost. The seasons where faith must thrive to pay the next bill, where the Word must be planted deep in my heart to sustain my health, and the times when sorrow would have buried me had the voice of the living God not broken through the mourning. Oh God, may I be counted worthy of the faith list mentioned in Hebrews 11. By faith….Shelly did ALL I placed her on earth to do. For anything less would be a tragedy and would suffer my heart great agony. If it cost me everything…..then so be it.
Christ is calling His people to ARISE….use what you have to build and plant in the Kingdom. It is merely on loan. Simplify your lives that Christ may be exalted in the coming days. Begin to ask Him where to sow your seed of finances and time that it would be good soil and it would reap a bountiful harvest. Let Him lay the axe to any roots of idolatry that keep you from obeying His Word and following His leadership. Let Him take from you anything that has placed a wall between you and Christ. As a sweet sister says…”open hands, palms up…” (thanks Patti Foster) may He take anything and everything He needs to that we may ARISE with only His heart and mind ready to do His work..for the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Love Much,
Shelly Wilson
