Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

You are a work in progress. You know that don’t you? If you don’t know and understand that, you need to. What you also need to understand is that God isn’t waiting for you to get to some level of personal righteousness or holiness before He is willing to use you! He will use you at every stage of your personal and spiritual development!

You can also be confident that if you lean upon the Lord, He is the one that is going to help you be used of Him and follow out and succeed in the plan He has for your life—day by day! The Apostle Paul said it like this in Philippians 1:4-6. “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God can and will carry out His plan in your life IF you will do your part. What is your part? I’ll tell you what’s not your part. It’s not to be perfect! That isn’t going to happen. But your part is to stay close to the Lord by reading and meditating on His Word. It’s also to be in church (not because it’s a sin if you don’t!) but to meet and fellowship with other believers. They are going to help you grow! Your part is to pray and invite God into every part of your life so the Holy Spirit can work in and through you! This isn’t something hard! It’s actually pleasurable, exciting, and capable of turning your life around, and leading you to God’s abounding blessings! It’s the beginning of glorious adventures in God!

Developing godly relationships with people is critical because one of the primary ways God speaks to you is through His people. That will be your Pastor. It will also be other Christians you’ve developed relationships with within the church. God will also use people (like me writing to you today) to speak into your life. He’ll also use people to pray for you. Their prayers will be for God to help you, and to be a covering of protection against the devices of Satan against you. From there, if you will just listen to the Spirit of God as He speaks through His Word and through people He has brought into your life, you’ll be a work in progress that makes it to completion.

God is working in you! He wants you to have strong faith that He is working in the midst of the circumstances in your life. He wants you to have strong faith that His supernatural power is working in you and through you to touch, bless, and influence the lives of others for the Lord. God isn’t waiting for you to be perfect. Read the gospels. You will see that the Lord used His disciples at all stages of their spiritual growth and maturity. Did they make mistakes in the process? Absolutely! Did that stop Jesus from having them touch others with His love and power? No! Mark 16:20 NLT says, “And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.”  

Despite their imperfections, they went out to represent Jesus, and God did miracles through them! Wow! That’s what He will do through you and me—despite our imperfections! Galatians 3:5 (NLT) says, “I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.”  So, you will make mistakes. You will have times of doubt and fear. But in those times, you need to stand in your faith, and say Thank you Lord for your love and mercy and always being with me and working through me!  There will be many times along your path of life when you will stumble and sin. When that happens, you’ll need to get back up, sincerely ask the Lord to forgive you, brush yourself off, and ask God to use you again. I can promise you that you’ll at times, feel like you are exhausting and abusing His mercy and forgiveness. You aren’t! Every Christian goes through that!

One of the most vivid memories of my daughter Stephanie’s childhood is the day I taught her to ride her bike. She was nervous and afraid. She did not want me to let go of the bike as I ran along side of her down the sidewalk. After a while, she started to get the hang of it and I let her go. She didn’t even realize it until she was at the end of the block and I was far behind. It was just a short time later she wanted to ride to my parent’s house. They lived a few blocks away. As we were riding over there, she turned a corner, slipped in some sand, and went down. Her cry seemed as loud as one of those air-raid sirens that go off each month. It took me a while to comfort her and calm her down. Then I had to get her back on that bike. It was hard for her but she did get back on—cautiously. And then we continued to my parent’s house without falling. And, as you would expect, she went on to enjoy riding her bike.

You will make mistakes as you learn to let God use you. You’ll fall off your bike, but when you do, don’t quit. Have faith and try again. Believing is the key! Faith in what God promises is the key to receiving from God and being used by God. Faith isn’t just hoping God will do something. Faith is knowing it’s His will, desire, and willingness to use you despite yourself.  Pray and ask Him to use you to touch someone’s life with His love today! You’ll be surprised how wonderful it feels to serve and be used, even in the smallest ways, by God!

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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