Thursday Tippity Tip - 2 Revelations that Changed My Life
It’s Not About You -
A couple years ago I doubted what God could do in me or through me. Sure, I thought God could do anything but the moment I tried to envision myself in HIS-story I cringed with unbelief. Two things were wrong with my perspective. First, my eyes were on the wrong person, me, and second, I was also leaving out one very, VERY important factor in the equation, God.
I had determined what could or couldn’t be done by how capable or incapable I was apart from God. Oh how God must have chuckled at my narrow perspective, especially when He was about to splinter my rickety thinking with one swing of His simple (but powerful!) revelation.
I remember wrestling with God one day when in the middle of my list of whys God cut in and so clearly said “Hey, Erin! It’s not about you.” It was like scales fell off my eyes. Here I had been putting God in a box instead of being a willing vessel. God didn’t need my whining objections or neatly laid out chart of what was possible or not.
He already knew my shortcomings and strengths and calculated for it all. He hadn’t come to get my opinion but to ask me if I would be willing to play a role He knew I could do if I just leaned on His understanding and used all the tools He had prepared beforehand for the success of the calling.
When I finally snapped out of my backwards thinking, I saw how this same revelation played out in the Bible. It’s full of story after story of ordinary people being used by God to do extraordinary things. Even though the stories all had drastically different variables, new backdrops, unique cultures, issues and more there was one thing that remained consistent throughout; willing obedience. Some got stuck up on self just like I did. Moses for example frustrated God during their burning bush conversation but God still brought him to the same realization He brought me. So listen up all you who KNOW God has called you and you have been discussing things with God like it’s a negotiation. I have four words for you, “It’s not about you!” ;)
2. It is My Testimony not Yours –
When I became a believer at 6yrs old God’s testimony had become my testimony even though I didn’t fully understand it then. For years I treated His testimony as a rough draft left in edit mode that anybody, including myself, could change with one type of an opinion or thought. Only, God’s testimony doesn’t work that way. His testimony is based off His character and heart’s desire, not mankind’s merit. It isn’t true or false based on its acceptance rate or deserving ratio. It is simply truth spoken by one who cannot lie. No matter what, it stays the same yesterday, today and forever.
It took me awhile but now I understand without a doubt that my life testimony isn’t my imagination or compilations of positive platitudes; it is His word spoken declared over me throughout the pages of Scripture. His testimony is a mantle of grace cast over me that says “I am my beloved’s and He is mine. I love Him because He first loved me”. Now instead of rejecting that mantle with some excuse as to how I don’t deserve it, I wrap it tight around me; cherishing His words of truth and life. I don’t just know I am loved, beautiful, redeemed, kept, strengthened, justified and comforted; I believe it and I speak it as an immutable decree by God, because…it is. If you are God’s child, His testimony is now your testimony. Live like it is so! And if you have yet to believe, come to God. Let Him show you the testimony of life He has freely waiting just for you.
