To The Point of Exhaustion
Last night we finished up Missions Conference at my church.
Having grown up all my life in good churches as well as attending Bible College, I've been involved with approximately 32 Missions Conferences.
If I haven't surrendered my life to the Lord's work by now, I'm a pretty sad case. The truth is, I've given my life to God a long time ago – to go wherever He wants me to go and do whatever He wants me to do.
Every time I attend a Missions Conference, my heart is burdened for all the people around the world who do not know Jesus, and who do not have someone to tell them about Him. My heart is stirred to work harder towards telling those I already know about His love.
This year was no different, and I thought, “Lord, what would you have me to do?” many times throughout the services.
God answered in one specific way long after the final service had ended last night. We were home and getting ready for bed. We were all worn out, and naturally I wanted to get into bed as soon as possible.
But my husband and I could sense that the children needed some attention from Mommy and Daddy. They had been rushed through the days of this past week to make sure everything was ready for church on time. Daddy came in the door from work at the last minute every night, and we would all hurry out the door. We enjoyed some fellowship with the missionaries after the services every night and then we would hurry back and make a mad dash for bed to get as much sleep as possible before another busy day arrived.
Last night we really felt that, as tired as we were, we should take the time to play with them, give them some tickles and cuddles, sing some songs, and just re-charge their “love batteries”.
Then it was off to bed. My oldest, who always seems to be high need when it comes to how much attention he gets, asked me to sing him a song. Thinking of how exhausted I was and how I had already “paid my dues” by playing with him, I started to say “Not tonight.”
But that's when the Holy Spirit spoke to me. “You go to Missions Conference and tell me that you'll do whatever I ask you to do. You sing the song that says you'll “spend and spare not” when it comes to how much you'll invest in people. You've said that you're willing to minister to people even when it's exhausting. Well, here's your chance. Here's a little soul that needs your ministry, and even though you're exhausted, you need to keep going. You can't give up just because you're tired.”
Wow! My heart was challenged to give my everything to this ministry of being a “keeper at home”. That is truly the primary thing God has called me to do.
It might seem more glamorous to work to the point of exhaustion when it's something “important” like being in a “real” ministry. But if we were to ask someone in the ministry, I would imagine they'd say it's not exactly more fun to be called in the middle of the night by a drug addict threatening to kill you than it is to sing a song to your kid before bed.
I have been giving up way too easily. I have been so concerned about the souls in my community and around the world to whom I'd like to minister that I've failed to see just how important these little souls are.
This one
And this one
And this one
No longer am I going to base my decision to sing or not to sing a song before bed on how tired I am. I'm not going to give up on the housework just because I want to go to bed. I'm not going to tune out the little voices asking me to read a book just because I have a list of things that I'm trying to get done.
These little ones are just too important!
So what if I'm tired? If I tell myself I wouldn't let something as simple as exhaustion stop me from ministering to the heathen, I should never let it stop me at home!
I can claim the verse “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” for the big things, and I can claim it in my little space at home.
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