Avoiding the Terminator
Two of the biggest hindrances to
completing my purpose in life have been trials and a feeling of inadequacy. I am pretty sure everyone at one time or another
has experienced one of those two struggles. As humans living in a fallen world,
we have struggles. Life isn’t perfect and it isn’t always easy.
We had Lisa Bevere at our church for
Chick Night a couple weeks ago. The message she taught was so powerful. She
started with telling us about the movie Terminator. Since I have never seen the
movie I’d like to explain it as close as I can to how she described the movie.
*** There was this girl named Sarah Connor. She didn’t seem
like anything special. No boyfriend, no real career. Then the Terminator comes
from the future to kill all of the Sarah Connors. He uses a phone book to find
all of them. She finds out about this and goes and hides in a bar. The
Terminator shows up there and start shooting people. Then some other guy from
the future shows up to save her. Sometime in all of this he finds time to
explain the situation to her. Tells her that the Terminator is after her
because of some amazing plan she comes up with and that her son will be a
General. Of course, she is pretty sure that they have the wrong person.***
She told this whole story to explain
that the attacks you go through are
often not because of who you are now, but because of the potential of who you
could be in the future. No other story had ever brought that point home so
well for me. You are not here by chance. You are who you are meant to be! God
has a purpose for you!
This story shows both extremes.
First, Sarah definitely went through an attack. My goodness, the Terminator was
trying to kill her! Then there was the feeling of inadequacy. She didn’t think
that she capable of what the guy from the future told her she would do.
For Jason and I the biggest attack I
feel we’ve experienced is the infertility. For a long time we let that dictate
our actions. We let it hinder who could become and the plan that God had for
our lives. We’ve learned a lot since we originally started going through this
journey. Romans 8:28 says that God causes all things to work for good to those
who love him. Now, let me be very clear, it did not say that God causes all
things, but He sure can take a crappy situation and turn it for his Glory.
You choose what you do with the
attacks that you experience in life. You can fight back, or you can let them
defeat you. This is one of the lessons that we have learned. Because we have
walked this journey we now have the special opportunity to help and encourage
other couples who are going through a similar journey. If you haven’t been
through it, it can be difficult to emphasize. God doesn’t cause these bad
things in our lives. In fact, we often cause them ourselves, but God does allow
us to use them to help others. Just as I can help people going through
infertility you have the opportunity to help others who have the same struggles
you have had. Our imperfections can be turned to glorify God. Think about the
struggles you have faced and how much God could take them and use them for his
good.
Another thing we have learned
through our journey of infertility is how to trust and lean on God. Last year I
went through a phase where my blood pressure kept spiking and I was having
vertigo spells. At this point my primary care provider decided it was best for
me to have an MRI done to make sure that there wasn’t a tumor on my pituitary
gland. Now, I will not say that I was perfect in this situation and I will not
say that fear didn’t creep in at times, but because of the faith practice we
already had in God because of going through the infertility, we knew that God
had our backs. We knew how to trust Him. I thank God all the time that the MRI
came back good. I only tell that to remind you that some experiences help you
grow your faith.
Now on to the feelings of inadequacy,
Gideon has already tried that, so there is no use in you trying that line too.
Stop telling God what you think your short-comings are. He knows you better
than you know you! He created you! God didn’t pick you because of how qualified
you think you are. God picked you because of how qualified you are in Him. In
Judges 6:15 Gideon tried to convince God that his was the weakest clan. God
didn’t care because He knew what He created Gideon to do. Philippians 4:13 says
that I can do all things through Christ. It does not say that I can do all
things through myself. Remember, God doesn’t expect you to do things on your
own. Not trusting yourself to do what God has called you to do is like telling
God you don’t trust in His abilities. Our qualifications are in Him. He
deserves all of the glory and honor forever and ever. Trust Him to use you.
Remember…
1. Attacks will come.
2. Take them as a compliment. They mean
the enemy knows what you are capable of!
3. Realize your potential in Christ
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