“Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing—it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

A lot of us have the idea that God’s call means going overseas or stepping into something monumental. Or at least I have in the past.

Sometimes God’s call is to be faithful where you are and to be obedient in the smallest things until God knows you can be trusted to handle bigger things. Mother Teresa once said that we do no great things but only small things with great love.

Any act of faithful obedience is a mustard seed that can sprout into something that will bless multitudes. Besides, it’s not our big faith in God that moves mountains but faith in a big God.

Above all, the key is readiness. That means that I am able to obey God in the moment. A friend once said that Christian maturity is the distance between God’s call and your ability to obey. A pastor said that when God does call you, you won’t have time to get ready, so you’ll have to be ready.

Readiness looks a lot like surrender. It looks a lot like letting go of my plans and saying to God, “Your will be done.”

My prayer for you and me is that we will always be ready for God to speak and willing and able to obey once He does.

“God said, ‘write your plans in pencil, but give Me the eraser. I might have something better for you'” (Carey Goins).

That’s the best plan for the future. Write your plans in pencil, and let God have the eraser. I still love the idea that God gives the very best to those who leave the choice with Him.

Every time God told me no, it was always a redirection to something better. It was like when my GPS reroutes me and saves me time on my commute, only better. God’s reroutes often lead to hidden blessings that I would have missed had I maintained my own original course.

There’s a proverb that says that we make our plans, but God is the one who directs our steps. We can take the finite and limited amount of information we have to determine what to do next, but when we leave it in God’s hands, we can rest in the one who sees it all.

I still get frustrated by what seems like God’s delays, but I also tend to forget the past where those delays were saving me from getting what I thought I needed and finding out it was not at all what I wanted. Had I known what God knows, I would have chosen what God chose for me.

“God never witholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God’s refusals are always merciful — “severe mercies” at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better” (Elisabeth Elliot).

I’m not lucky when it comes to contests. Most of the time, I don’t win anything. Then there was the time recently when I won a big gift bag from the mall – – only to discover it was from a store that specialized in women’s apparel.

I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I’ve won in any kind of a drawing or contest. But then I remember that Jesus died for me. For. Me.

That’s better than any kind of lottery. That’s better than winning the $1 billion jackpot. That’s the abundant life now plus eternal life to come.

That’s for anyone who will say yes to Jesus. That’s for anyone who will repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. That’s something that can never be taken away, taxed or destroyed.

If I’m not overwhelmed and amazed by this amazing gift every single day, it’s only because I don’t fully appreciate the gift I’ve received. If I truly understood all the salvation meant, I’d never stop being thankful day and night and telling everyone I knew about it.

Note: This is something I wrote a long time ago back before the WordPress days. It’s probably from 2010 or earlier:

“I think one of the reasons that community is so important is that it enlarges our view of God. I like to think that each of us carry puzzle pieces of what God is like. Each has a few pieces that reveal a limited aspect of God. When you get to know me, you add more pieces to your puzzle and your view of God gets bigger and clearer. When I get to know you, the same happens for me.

The more people whose lives we invest in, the more pieces and the bigger our view of God becomes and the more the pieces fall into place and connect into more coherent forms.

I truly believe that we grow as believers and our knowledge of God increases only in the context of community, where we share with each other and serve one another in love. There’s no way I can figuire out God on my own, apart from other believers.

There it is. That’s my thought for the day. Hope it helps.”

I think believers as individuals can reflect the image of God, but not as well as when we function within the context of community. As we compliment each other with our strengths and weaknesses, we demonstrate the totality of who Jesus is to the world.

It’s no accident that one name for the Church is the body of Christ. No one person can represent all of who Jesus is, but we can each play a part. Together like the pieces of a puzzle or a mosaic or a work of stained glass, we reflect the glory of God as shown in Jesus Christ.

I’m reading through a daily devotional this year called God’s Message for Each Day by Eugene Peterson, best known as the translator of The Message Bible. This one was from a few days ago, but it made enough of an impact on me that I remembered it and thought I would share it.

There is something to praying the Psalms. If we prayed the Psalms through, we’d cover all the gamut of human emotions. There is nothing in the human experience that isn’t in the Psalms at some point.

But also it’s a good reminder to pray honestly. I’ve been as guilty as anyone of praying what I thought God wanted to hear or what might make me sound holier than praying what was really on my heart.

Why bother trying to fool God? He already knows what you’re feeling and thinking. Praying isn’t about telling God something He doesn’t already know. It’s about coming to see things from God’s point of view and having your perspective reset.

I love that God hears me when I have no words. God can take those groans and sighs that go too deep for words and turn them into prayers that can’t be refused. God can take “Thy will be done” and answer it in ways you might never have expected but in ways that turn out way better than you could ever have planned it had you had your own way.

Can I ask you something? Have you ever had one of those moments where your plans took a sudden and unexpected detour? I don’t mean in a grand and tragic way (although that does happen to us at times). This is more of a minor reroute.

For example, many times I will retrace my steps because I realize that I left something behind or forgot to do something while I was there. Often, I see it as an annoyance at first and get frustrated with myself for having to go back.

But occasionally I’ll run into someone and have a conversation that I would not have had if everything had gone according to the original plan. Maybe that’s God’s divine redirection, like when you miss a turn and your GPS doesn’t miss a beat but tells you where to go next from there.

I think God already knew I was going to be forgetful at times. God planned for my sometime stupidity when He orchestrated my life. He wants me to see that my hope is not in my plans or my idea of how my day should go, but in the God who has already numbered my steps and shown me the way to take.

Sometimes interruptions aren’t a distraction from the work God has for me. They are the work God has for me. The same goes for detours, whether in life or on the road. If we’ll only be wise enough to look for God’s fingerprints and follow His lead, we’ll receive a bonus blessing of seeing God’s providence at work.