Each Wednesday night our church has a service. It is a precious time of fellowship with the people who come. A different person teaches weekly, so each week is a delight and a discovery. I love this time together.
Tonight as we were getting ready to drive to the church I mentioned to Dale that I thought I would rather just put on my jammies and head to bed. I felt cold and tired and done with the day. I should have known better.
The woman who taught tonight opened with a bang and kept going. To say my heart was blessed is an understatement.
She opened with how the Lord talked to her, she merely said, He called me by name. Just in that statement I could have gone home refreshed. Our Lord does call us by name. He knows each of us intimately and He knows our name. He has called me Cathi numerous times and I smile. He has called me Mary and somehow it sounds endearing and intimate. My name from His lips is beautiful. It strips away all the angst I have with my first name. To hear Him call me by my name is at once reassuring and safe.
This woman went on to say that after calling her by name, our Lord spoke to her and urged her to use her time well. I know these aren’t her exact words, but, this is what seeped deeply into me. Use my time well. Do I do that? Sometimes, but sometimes not. She urged those in the sanctuary to ask the Lord for divine appointments, you know when you run into someone and somehow the conversation turns toward heaven and you know the Lord is in the middle of the conversation.
After she finished there was a discussion time and I continued to be moved by the words spoken by others around me. Our pastor encouraged us to not think of our lives as insignificant. That hit me directly in my heart. I have always viewed and relayed to others that my life, my words on a page are not major, that I, in the midst of all the more educated and seasoned writers am pretty tiny. I have yearned to do great things for my Savior. I long to reach so many with words of encouragement and words of salvation in our Lord.
Pastor continued saying that we are not insignificant, because we are living now, in one of the hardest and darkest times in the world. I was reminded how in the book of Esther, her uncle Mordecai requested that she go to her husband, the king and ask for deliverance for her people, the Jews. She hesitated and her uncle said this to her, “13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. 14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” Esther 4:13 (NLT)
When we were chosen to be alive for this time in the world, it was for a time and a purpose. We may not understand what the purpose is, but God, who calls us by name, knows.
I walked out of church this evening with tears in my eyes and joy in my heart. No matter how small and insignificant I may feel, the Lord has a purpose for me, that perhaps I AM here for such a time as this.
“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’” Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV)
I am going to ask the Lord how to wisely use my time that I am here, ask for those divine appointments, those conversations where our Lord joins in.
After all, He knows my name. He knows your name also.
The Refreshing of a Wild Rose 