B E H I N D / T H E / B A R

I love helping people.  I love being in a family that loves to help others.  I love that my community of faith finds a need and fills it, finds a hurt and heals it.  The struggle I face all too often, however,  is the inability to do more.  I see so many people in our city who are in need.  I see so many opportunities, that if we just had more money, more people to help, then more people’s lives could be impacted by the Kingdom of God.  I found myself praying this week, “God we need help.  We need people to help us help others.  We need their help financially, we need their help practically, God send more people to help.”

But God challenged my thinking this weekend, when I was talking to one of our church members.  I was telling her, “We just need more people to help.  We need more people to help financially,” and suddenly she politely stopped me.   In a loving, motherly way, my friend said, “Shannon, God doesn’t need our help.  He’s inviting us and others to join Him in what He’s already doing in our city.”  Her words rattled me.

God doesn’t need my help. He’s inviting me to join Him in the process of impacting the lives of others.

Suddenly I began to see things from a different perspective.  I began to see the countless ways in which people I know are responding to God’s invitation.  Like the lady in our church who took homeless lady to get her eyes checked this week.  She responded to God’s invitation to be involved in His ministry.  Not my request for help.  He wasn’t looking for the couple to come help Him hand out sleeping bags in tent city this past Sunday morning, He invited them to join Him in what He was already doing there, and they did.  No sign up sheets, no announcements, no guilt trips, they simply responded to His invitation.

So my prayers have changed.  I’m not asking God to send more people to help.  I’m asking God to stir the hearts of people to respond to His invitation.  I’m praying He frees His Church from the warped thinking that God needs our help.  He doesn’t.  He wants our participation.  He wants us to join Him in what He’s doing.

I guess you could say, our help is un-wanted.

He’s inviting.  I’m praying you will RSVP.