Amazing Grace

Being part of a team can be stretching, exciting and incredibly refining. Most of us experience life as part of a team, whether it’s in marriage, family, work or play and would probably attest to the challenges that can come as you endeavour to get numerous people on to the same page, despite the fact that they are all unique in age, abilities, likes and dislikes.

At our Ellel Ministries centre, there are four of us who make up the core worship team, three females and one male. Lately, God has been inviting us as a team, spirit, soul, and body, into a place of greater unity by confronting our weaknesses, while at the same time cheering us on each step we take.

Spiritually, He has been challenging us to go deeper into His word, calling us to mature individually but also as part of a corporate body.

In the area of our soul (mind, will and emotions) we’re learning to leave the comparisons behind and to navigate with the Spirit of God leading, as opposed to our feelings.

And in the physical, there seems to be a current highlight on the instrument of our voice, and in particular a fearless look at our own weaknesses, not to expose or shame us, but to help us grow in our dependency on our faithful Father.

The Apostle Paul has a life-lesson for us today. There’s no need to be threatened by the weaknesses that are in all of us at some level. When we’re weak and can humbly acknowledge that reality, God’s grace becomes all-sufficient, His power is perfected and like Paul, we can hold our head high making room for God to work in and through us in miraculous ways. Weakness is a platform that our Father uses to display His glory.

There was a time in our journey with Jesus where my husband had no work for almost eighteen months and I became very sick. For three weeks I was basically bed-ridden, which meant neither of us could work. There was no more money and nothing we could do about our circumstances.

God had two big revelations for us at this time. One was that He grace is greater than any circumstance we could ever find ourselves in and the second was an understanding of what it meant to be part of the team we call the body of Christ. Without us asking, people began to move as the Lord moved them, and the Lord met our needs in miraculous ways that still bring us to tears. Therefore, we can now ‘boast all the more gladly about our weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on us’.

Prayer: Father God, You’re truly bigger than my sin, sickness, poverty and pain. Forgive me for the times that I doubt Your goodness toward me. You’re a really good Father who doesn’t cause harm, but uses it as a platform to teach, love and heal Your precious children. Thank You for being who You say You are. Amen.