You are listening to abide in Jesus, the podcast for women who want to experience Christ’s healing, touch in their lives. I’m your host author, Carolyn Rice, and in this episode, we’ll talk about tapping into your significance.
First, I want to tell you about a woman named Wanda.
Insignificant.
This is how the world would have seen her.
A housewife, no job, no income.
She didn’t even know how to drive a car.
There was nothing great about her. Yet, she was the woman who had an eternal impact on my life.
I did not come from a Christian home and had never even heard about God. But, one night when I was five years old, I listened to my mom and aunt talk while I was supposed to be asleep in my bed.
One of them used the phrase, God only knows.
The question loomed over my mind, Who was God? And what did He know?
It became so pressing that I rose from my bed and asked “Who’s God?”
“Go back to bed!” my mother chastened.
But my aunt pointed to the ceiling. “He’s the big guy up there.”
I went back to bed that night, thinking of a giant in the sky and his name was God.
The big giant named God stayed in the forefront of my mind.
Soon after, when I’d come to play with my friends across the street, I stood in their kitchen, looked up at their mother, and asked, “Who’s God?”
And that’s when this woman who the world would have seen as insignificant told me about Jesus and how He died and rose again.
From then on, every time I came over, we had conversations about God.
I still remember spending the night with her girls, sleeping bags, strewn about the living room. And when her girls were already asleep, their mother, Wanda sat up with me, telling me Bible stories and sharing about Jesus. She answered all of my questions and made sure I knew Jesus loved me.
She was not significant to the world, but to me, she was one of the most significant people in my life.
Have you ever felt insignificant, or that no one notices the things you do?
No one may have noticed Wanda or given her a second thought when it came to how this world measure success.
But this woman was a crucial part of my life. This world measures success very differently than God does. So today, I want to talk about even if the world does not think you are great or significant, that you are precious.
You are significant, you are of great purpose to God, and you are exactly in the place where God has placed you right now to be a light to this world.
Ask
And if you’re not sure what your purpose is, ask the Lord.
Ask him to show you what His purpose is for you.
Give your plan to the Lord daily, surrender this day to the Lord and ask Him to direct your day and your steps.
Proverbs 16:9 in the NKJV says, a man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Surrender carrying it all by yourself.
Give that burden to the Lord.
And if you are not sure how to do that, you can pray this prayer with me.
Father God, in the name of Jesus. I surrender all the burdens of being, carrying myself. I surrender them into your hand. They are your burden and not mine. I give them to you. I ask Father that you would direct my steps and show me the way to go in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Give Him Space to Speak
Another way you could find out the purpose God has for you is by giving him space to speak.
I had my own plans in life. And I won’t go into it now, but it was only when I began spending time every day in worship and prayer that I felt the Lord’s call to go to Bible college.
What if I hadn’t have done that?
What if I hadn’t spent that time?
I would have gone on with my own plans and did what I wanted to.
In that time of giving my plans to the Lord of giving a little bit of time to him each day to listen and to be in His word, that is when I felt him leading me and guiding me to his plans for my life.
Choose a Time and place
So choose a time and a place daily to give the Lord space to speak to you, a prayer time, a time of devotions.
When my kids were little, I would take them to school and then I would come home and I would have devotions. If I had to go somewhere, I would take my Bible with me, and I’d have devotions in the car when I had a little bit of time.
I’ve had devotions at a lunch hour during work, or I’ve read my Bible before bed.
When my daughter was really little and I worked full time, I read my Bible before bed and prayed before bed. And then I got up in the morning and went about my day.
But it is in that time of giving him space to speak, whatever time you can give, whatever works for you, just give him that space to speak.
And He will begin to speak to you about His plans for your life.
Be Faithful Where you Are
Another way that you can walk into God’s plans for your life is to be faithful right where you are.
I went to Bible college. I wanted to finish Bible college.
And in order to do that, I had to be faithful to do my homework for class each day.
I had to be faithful to go and show up.
What is that one thing that God has put on your heart?
Do you want to write that book?
Do you want to go to Bible college?
Do you want to just step out into the plans that he has for you?
What do you do for that today?
How can you be faithful to that today or this week, or this month?
Luke 16:10 in the NKJV says He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. And he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
So dear sister, be faithful where you are, and it will carry you into that tomorrow.
Be faithful today, and it will carry you into that tomorrow.
If you want that Bible college degree, you do your homework today.
You show up for class today.
If you want to walk into God’s plans for you, you follow him today.
Be faithful where you are. And that faithfulness to today will carry you into all of your tomorrows that God has planned for you.
Yes, God has a plan for you.
He has a destiny for you, but you are also going to have to do what He says.
In order to finish Bible college, I had to do the work.
Be faithful, where you are today.
Do the work that’s been put in front of you. It just may be preparing you for what is to come.
Do Not Give UP
Remember. Remember dear daughter of the King that you are the light of the world.
Do not give up.
The devil would like to trip you up, to slow you down, to discourage you and to put out your light.
Do not give up.
John 10:10 in the NKJV says, The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.
Plod On
There is a story that we heard again and again in Bible college.
And it was about something, the man who started the Bible college said. He talked about when things came against you, when you ran into mountains, when you ran into problems, when you ran into things that just tripped you up and wanted to discourage you and just were not what you planned… his words were “plod on, plod on, plod on.”
Continue, keep going, serve God today.
Follow him today.
Something that a man spoke over me. I went for prayer at my church and something a man spoke over me, and he said, “Keep going during the hard times, and you’ll have something to write about in the good times.”
Because dear sister, in the end, God always wins.
I want to say that again, in the end, God always wins.
He is who we are serving. His kingdom is what we are living for. We are living to glorify him.
We are the light of the world.
And in the end he always wins.
Galatians 6:9 says, and let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
No matter how broken you are, no matter what’s going on in your life, you are the light of the world, right now, right where you are, you are shining light for Jesus.
Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re insignificant, that you don’t matter. Don’t let anyone take away your worth or lie to you about your worth and value for you are significant.
With the word that is in you, with the light that you have, you have a purpose today.
You are precious to God Our Father. You are of great price in his kingdom, right where you are right now, just the way you are.
So dear sister, be faithful where you are today, and it will carry you into your tomorrows.
Know that God does have plans for you.
He has a plan and a purpose for your life, but God has also given you today, this very moment.
You are significant.
You are the light right now.
God Sees
No one saw Wanda telling me about Jesus. No one saw her doing her dishes and taking care of children and answering questions about God. No one applauded her. No one saw her. No one encouraged her. But in doing what she did, she changed my life forever.
And I want to say to you, sister, that even if no one sees you, God sees you, and the person that you’re helping sees you.
Let that be enough.
You are significant.
You are the light right now.
Can I pray for you today?
Father, I pray for my dear sister in Christ that she would know that she has significance, and that as she is faithful where she is, it will carry her into all of her tomorrows.
Thank you, father that my dear sister is so precious to you and you have a plan and a purpose for her life right now, today. You have a plan for her life, a destiny, but also you have a plan for her right now, today.
Help her Lord to live more for your kingdom, rather than for people.
Father, I pray that you would help her, that you would direct her steps today, that she would be able to give you space to speak to her. That she would not give up, that she would not let the enemy put out her light, that she would not listen to the lie that no one sees her, or no one knows.
Encourage her and show her that she is significant, right where she is.
She is the light of the world, right where she is.
Help her father to be faithful.
And the thing that you have given her to do in this moment, today, help her to know and remember how precious she is to you and that her life matters.
Your life matters dear sister. In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
Thank you for listening to Abide in Jesus. You can find show notes for this episode at Carolynsbooks.com
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