Seeking or waiting?
“We seek divine grace today still to obey the call of yesteryear from our Founder, General William Booth: “Go for souls and go for the world souls!” We are called to engage with the lowest. We have to go where they can be found. Salvationism seeks out. It does not sit and wait for the lost to apply for help.” (Shaw Clifton in New Love)
I love that statement. It is what we have been about, particularly for the last 13 as we have been engaged in pioneering Salvation Army work in Ripon and Northallerton. Alan often says he has an “in your face” ministry and that the Salvation Army in Northallerton should “get everywhere” so that people in our town know that we are there for them. Most people in our town are lost but they do not know it so part of our task is to help them to see they need to come home to God.
However I want to add that whilst we do not wait for the lost to apply for help we do need to wait upon the Lord for where to seek them and how to find them. Passion and drive are all very well but we could easily “toil all night and catch nothing” because we have not heard or obeyed the Lord’s command to “throw our nets” in a different direction.
I read this the other day in a sermon somewhere, “The problem too many folk have is a “How can I build a way” mentality. We need to stop trying to make things happen on our own and start looking for the ways God has created.”
These years of planting have been a lesson in keeping the seeking and the waiting in balance.
When we have waited upon the Lord he has always be faithful and directed our paths. He has not let us sit idly by for much time at all. Waiting upon the Lord isn't any less work than trying to build your own way but it has infinitely better results and you don't destroy yourself in the process. Sometimes we have become frustrated and assumed that we had misunderstood God’s leading when results have not been instant or what we expected. But I also praise God that there are those times when we’ve waited upon God, he’s gone with us when we have gone seeking and the lost have been found!
God bless
Carol
“We seek divine grace today still to obey the call of yesteryear from our Founder, General William Booth: “Go for souls and go for the world souls!” We are called to engage with the lowest. We have to go where they can be found. Salvationism seeks out. It does not sit and wait for the lost to apply for help.” (Shaw Clifton in New Love)
I love that statement. It is what we have been about, particularly for the last 13 as we have been engaged in pioneering Salvation Army work in Ripon and Northallerton. Alan often says he has an “in your face” ministry and that the Salvation Army in Northallerton should “get everywhere” so that people in our town know that we are there for them. Most people in our town are lost but they do not know it so part of our task is to help them to see they need to come home to God.
However I want to add that whilst we do not wait for the lost to apply for help we do need to wait upon the Lord for where to seek them and how to find them. Passion and drive are all very well but we could easily “toil all night and catch nothing” because we have not heard or obeyed the Lord’s command to “throw our nets” in a different direction.
I read this the other day in a sermon somewhere, “The problem too many folk have is a “How can I build a way” mentality. We need to stop trying to make things happen on our own and start looking for the ways God has created.”
These years of planting have been a lesson in keeping the seeking and the waiting in balance.
When we have waited upon the Lord he has always be faithful and directed our paths. He has not let us sit idly by for much time at all. Waiting upon the Lord isn't any less work than trying to build your own way but it has infinitely better results and you don't destroy yourself in the process. Sometimes we have become frustrated and assumed that we had misunderstood God’s leading when results have not been instant or what we expected. But I also praise God that there are those times when we’ve waited upon God, he’s gone with us when we have gone seeking and the lost have been found!
God bless
Carol
posted by Rehoboth at
1:32 PM
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