It is amazing how God uses the saints as vessels for His Spirit to dwell and bring messages to others! I am reached personally yet again by Fenelon, a Christian in the 17th century (!) and I want to share this with you today because it is the Lord speaking directly to my frazzled mind.
“When it comes to accomplishing things for God, you will find that high aspirations, enthusiastic feelings, careful planning, and being able to express yourself well are not worth very much. The important thing is absolute surrender to God. You can do anything He wants you to do if you are walking in the light of full surrender.
Living in this blessed way involves a continual death which is known to very few, but it is in this position that you can be really effective for God. A single word spoken to another person from this restful, abandoned position will do more to change circumstances than all our most eager and carefully planned schemes…Only one word perhaps–but it enlightens, persuades, blesses, and moves to action.”
I am learning the obedient action of praying before and during each task, especially those that involve others, because like that old joke says, “My attitudes and behaviors were perfect today…until I got out of bed.” I am downright saintly until I am pushed and prodded by people, voices, demands, tiredness, hunger, heat, cold, whatever (it doesn’t take much!) So, before I am meeting someone for health coaching, or while I am singing, or before I begin (and certainly during) homeschool, even before sitting down with my husband to talk…I am learning the beauty of leaning in hard on the Lord and letting Him know that I know I will only have as much to give as He personally gives me in those moments. To say, “Oh, Lord, I know- I deeply know- that this is all You” is a peaceful place of submission and dependence.
In quietness and rest is our strength. In the peaceful abandon of our own spirits to the Lord, we have a deep reservoir in which to draw for that one word that may sustain a friend…not our word, but the Lord’s. And as most of my blog entries end, this brings us back to personally staying in His presence and carefully removing that which makes us frazzled and disconnected. I think it is the work of our lives, our true job, to remain peaceful in the palm of His hand. Some of us have busier schedules than others, some of us don’t have much to juggle; but wherever He has placed us, I know that He will make it possible to practice His presence and lean into Him for each interaction we have with others, and in this way, we are vessels to speak His words without even realizing it. This is my aim and my heart’s desire…
