Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Faith”
Our Bible verse for today: “For You are great and perform wonders; You alone are God. Teach me Your way, Yahweh, and I will live by Your truth. Give me an undivided mind to fear Your name. But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth.” Psalm 86: 10-11; 15 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “God has a pretty God track record.”
As I write this I have just returned from a two week mission trip to the Andes Mountains in Peru. It was a wonderfully successful mission. A team of twenty-four from the USA and Canada joined in partnership with a team of four American missionary kids who served as translators for us, along with six Peruvian Christians who also served as translators, as well as two Peruvian pastors and a Peruvian medical doctor.
Our team conducted seven free medical and dental clinics which also included distribution of reading glasses, a spiritual pharmacy where people received spiritual counsel and prayer, distribution of hundreds of evangelistic tracts and Bibles, and a recreational ministry for the children. It was one of the most successful mission trips I have ever had the privilege to lead. We served over 850 medical patients, more than 200 dental patients, we dispensed almost 2500 free prescriptions, gave out approximately 400 pairs of reading glasses, prayed with approximately 500 people, and witnessed more than 100 profess faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
But I have to admit that during the months and weeks leading up to the mission trip I was anxious about it. As a busy pastor who was also serving as the mission planner, I was worried that I was forgetting something, or that important details would be missed, or that someone else wouldn’t do their part, etc. I forgot that the mission trip was really God’s not mine, and that He was more concerned about the successful outcome of it than I was. And, He was much better able to pull it all together than I would ever be. In short, I wasn’t living (or mission planning) by faith.
In Psalm 86 King David addressed a great truth that helps us during times when we’re relying on our own abilities rather than God’s faithfulness. Essentially David reminded himself that “God is God, and I am not.” “God is great and He performs wonders and miracles, while I am not great and I do not perform wonders and miracles.” As David noted, God is compassionate and loving and gracious, and what David needed was an undivided, undistracted mind that was focused on God rather than on himself and his on own abilities.
How did David know these things to be true about God? The same way I should have known them to be true regarding the planning and execution of the mission trip – by experience. The fact is that God has a pretty good track record. With respect to mission trips, He has always come through before. Therefore I should have known that He would preside over the details of this mission trip too.
The same is true in your life regarding the issues you are facing. God is Sovereign over it all. He is there and He is involved. And, He has a pretty good tract record of working things out in your life too. Therefore you can have faith in Him for today, and for all of your tomorrows too.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 