I am coming up to my 29 birthday as a Christian and I still remember so much of that Saturday night in Hockley Pentecostal Church when I made a decision to accept Jesus as Lord. I am so glad that God took a hold of me all those years ago.
Yet really my journey of faith began well before then, well before that moment when I choose to accept Jesus.
It began in a way with Maggie who pestered me about the faith she had in Jesus during my time a Dudley College and wouldn’t let up until I came with her to the Christian Union and eventually a few weeks later to that service in Hockley.
But years before the journey started when as a very young child I heard of the hope of Jesus at the Sunday School we were sent to by my non-Christian parents.
After my ordination my mom told me that it began years before that, with prayers and a prophecy shared over me by my grandparents neighbour who worshipped at the local Methodist Church and told my mom when I was just a few days old that God had plans for me and that I would serve Him as a minister in the church. If only she had told me sooner, like when I was wrestling with my call to ministry!
God always reaches out to us, laying opportunities before us over and over and over again, longing that we might hear His love song and turn to Him.
Yet really where the journey begins isn’t anywhere near as important as how well it goes after we are out of the starting blocks. As Christians we of all people should recognise that we are not meant to stand still and stay the same, yet sometimes we do get caught up in how things start and forget that we are called to work out our faith, to walk with Jesus, to be changed.
Sometimes as Churches we make the same kind of mistakes looking back more than we look forward, and missing opportunities for new fresh ways for today.
All of God’s people are called to grow, develop and be changed so that day by day we are more like Jesus.
I pray that we all might use these days of Lent to ask God to give you a real sense of His presence and as His Sprit fills you, may you take more steps towards becoming the people God called us to be.
Don’t be content with who you are, don’t sit back and think Church is yet as it should be, we are meant to be growing and changing!
God bless you
Neil
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