Daily Devotional for Friday February 4, 2000

Doing Great Things for God!

(2 Corinthians 8:3-4)

I have always loved to read about the man called Saul, who became Paul. A man who was a leader in persecuting the first church, had that incredible transformation on the Damascus Road, and then proceeded to live one of the greatest lives of service ever recorded. Hours upon hours I have studied Paul?s life, and in the end I came to the conclusion that his success in serving the Lord was due to the fact he had no fear of what God could do and lived out his belief that all things were possible with God. Listen to me closely. Paul did not just say it . . . HE LIVED IT!!! If you are going to do great things for God, you must have no fear and LIVE each day without doubting that God is able to do all things.

I hear many people condemn the church, condemn ministries for always talking about money. I agree that perhaps too much effort does go into fund-raising, but I want to remind you that one of the most effective fund-raisers in the history of the church was Paul himself. He understood that to spread the Good News in a massive way took the financial support of those who were already in the faith. I appreciate his approach in that he always made it clear it was not the size of the gift, but the attitude of the heart that gave. It was not the amount, but the sacrifice involved. Paul was realistic because he understood that to take the Gospel to all the world, it required hard work, sacrifice, and finances. Being the intelligent man he was, I have, no doubt, that he sat down, figured out what it would take for each of his missionary journeys and the planting of the new churches, and then asked God for wisdom in how to raise the amount needed following God?s plan.

My heart is so open this very moment as I am typing these words to you. I sense in my spirit so many wanting to do more for the Lord, so many wanting to make a bigger impact. I want to tell you in love, the only thing stopping you is YOU! God is ready. We have a BIG God. He can do all things. Only YOU can limit what God can do. I want this message to be an encouragement and a challenge for you to get out there and see how big God really is. Don?t be afraid of failure because there is NO failure in the things of God. I am encouraged by the great men of vision alive at this point in time, men who have challenged God and done great things for God, men who were not satisfied sitting back waiting for someone else to do something. God has given many of you reading this devotional visions, plans of how to reach the lost, abilities to touch the hurting. The state of our society and the world we live in tells us that now more than ever, we must move forward with the visions and plans God gives us to reach people with the Gospel. This is a wake-up call to many of you that NOW is the time to move forward. Now is the time to make those dreams into reality.

NOW IS THE TIME TO DO GREAT THINGS FOR GOD!!!