Trust God with Your Inadequacies

One morning, I was reflecting upon the hymn “Just As I Am” and upon the story of it’s invalid author, Charlotte Elliott. Because this was one of my mother’s favorite hymns, my thoughts drifted back to her memorial service and the Lord reminded me of an important lesson: trust that He is bigger than my inadequacies.

We had planned a simple gathering of family and friends in my mom’s back yard. It was a lovely day and our guests enjoyed the food and fellowship with one another, so despite my one mistake, God blessed it.

I had asked a friend, whom I admired for her ability to pray well, to open the sharing time in prayer. As the time wore on, she called to say she had been delayed and that I could start without her. In retrospect, I believe God was trying to tell me that I was the one who should open in prayer, but my insecurities prevented me from recognizing that at the time. Because I waited for my friend, one guest missed the open sharing time because he had to leave.

I am sure that I sought God (and hopefully my family) in making the preparations, but sometimes there are things that inhibit our ability to hear God clearly (things like fears, anxieties, perhaps wrong motives, etc.). I’m so thankful that my gracious Lord is able to work around my mistakes!

The lessons I gleaned from this are as follows:

1) When something doesn’t go according to plan, it’s good to ask God if we should change our plans! Sometimes He will motivate us to persevere, but other times He may re-direct us. This was an example of the latter (but I failed to see that at the time).

2) Trust God with our inadequacies and insecurities.

He is very capable of accomplishing His work through inadequate people, and this actually brings glory to His name! 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (NIV) says, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”

So, I qualify, through my relationship with Christ, to be used by Him. I just need to remember to continually seek His guidance and have the faith to trust Him to be bigger than my inadequacies!

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