Dear Friends,
On many occasions, Pauline and I have had the joy and encouragement of working alongside friends who have had a real sense that God was calling them to do something new for him. It has been inspirational to see how often these experiences have taken them (and sometimes us!) out of their comfort zones, as they sensed God challenging them to start work that in many cases they would not have chosen to do themselves.

On each occasion, common qualities of character shown by our friends have been an availability to serve God’s agenda and purposes and a willingness to do things his way and not theirs. The Bible has many examples of such attitudes.

Perhaps availability is rarely expressed more clearly than Isaiah’s response to God’s call, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ ‘…Here am I; send me!’ (Isaiah 6:8). And in 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat faces the incredibly scary challenge of being told simply to ‘stand firm’ in the middle of the battlefield and allow God to fight the battle for him, because ‘the battle is not yours, but God’s’ (2 Chronicles 20:15).

Jesus himself embodies these attitudes in his availability to be sent to rescue a needy world from the consequences of our sin as, for our sakes, he ‘…became poor, so that [we] through his poverty might become rich.’ (2 Corinthians 8:9) And, as we have once again remembered over Easter, he demonstrated a willingness to do things God’s way and not his as in the face of the most extreme pressure he prayed ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.’ (Luke 22:42)

Isaiah, Jehoshaphat and many others, but most significantly, Jesus, show us that the way to see God at work is to make ourselves available to him, and to be prepared to stand firm as he does things his way. So, in what way is God calling you to make yourself available today? And in what area of your life is he asking you to let go of your agenda and allow him to do things his way because ‘the battle is not yours, but God’s’?

With my love and prayers
Matthew Scott