Stepping Out

I want to share with you all a neat experience I had last weekend. The Lord had laid it on a friend’s heart a few months ago to begin visiting people at a very run-down apartment complex near her home. She and another sister began to bring bags of groceries to several of the families at the end of the month and offering to pray with people. In our prayer meeting we have been pressing in for the people there. Many of them are alcoholics, unemployed, and really need Jesus.

Last weekend something came up and one of the girls wasn’t going to be able to go as planned so they asked me if I was available. I agreed, and the next morning spent some time praying and just asking God if there was anything specific I needed to know or prepare my heart for. I honestly just wanted to feel God’s heart for these people and get excited about ministering to them. But as I prayed, the only thing God spoke to me was, “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”

Over the summer as I read and talked through the book of Matthew with the other volunteers at YWAM SF, one of the things that kept jumping out to me was how often Jesus said to his disciples, “O you of little faith.” It comes up at least four times in Matthew. I realized how often I think I need a fresh, new word from the Lord before I can get excited about obedience. Sometimes we just need to go for it. He has already commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. He has already given us all authority. He has already asked us to share our bread with the hungry, to share our coat with him who doesn’t have one, and to pray for the sick. Do I always need a new revelation before stepping out?

So that morning as I prayed, I sensed the Lord just speaking to me to go in sheer, practical obedience, expecting Him to just work through us and give us what we needed as we went. After assembling the bags my friend and I spent some time praying and worshipping. I shared the word the Lord spoke to me that morning, and was so happy when she told me the Lord had spoken to her exactly the same thing!

So we went, and I can’t tell you the sweet thrill of getting out of the car on this swelteringly hot summer day, walking up to these apartments, and offering these people some groceries and getting to just talk and love them. They were all so grateful to receive the groceries, and most were eager to have us pray for other needs as well. Hearts were so open to us and to the love of Jesus.

I want to continue to press into prayer and ask the Father to reveal more of His heart to me for people around me. Yet I also want to remember to simply be faithful because He has already spoken so many things to us throughout our lives and simply through the Bible. We can step out in simple obedience, knowing that He has prepared good works for us from the foundation of the world. And I firmly believe that as we begin to step out in faith, the Lord will continue to direct us and guide our steps.