God’s Beauty in Simplicity

God’s presence is here in India and He is moving in some mighty ways!

What makes that even better is that He wants us to be a part of it.

How cool is that?!  The creator of the universe wants to use you and me to bring His love to this place.  He could use anyone and anything, but He chose to use us – I cannot think of a better or more beautiful gift!

As you have probably read by now, my team spent our Saturday night in one of the nearby villages sharing the Gospel.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect, so we put together a list of songs that we all knew the words to and our leaders asked us to each prepare a little something to share in case we were called upon to speak.

Later in the afternoon our leaders asked if any of us felt particularly called to speak in the event that they only needed a couple of us for that.  I could tell that the Lord was calling me to be one of those, but I tried to fight it.  I had so many thoughts going through my head of reasons to not speak:

I strongly dislike both writing and public speaking – that alone seemed like a good enough reason, but I had more.

There are so many girls on my team that would be way better at this.

I have nothing to say that could possibly help any of these people.

I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.

No one would blame me if I didn’t volunteer.

If God really wants me to speak He’ll make it happen there.  I don’t need to push this.

God still hasn’t given me anything to speak about except the fact that He wants me to tell of His love – how broad is that?  Many of the other girls already have ideas and things planned.

God didn’t think that any of those were valid arguments and was relentless.  I somehow found myself saying, “I think God wants me to speak” and heard the words, “Ok, Tori, you’ll speak for sure.”

What had I done?!

I didn’t even know what to talk about and time was running out!

I went up to the roof and prayed then looked through my Bible – nothing.

I prayed some more and tried to think of something – still nothing.

I pulled out my Bible again – nothing.

I prayed yet again and then it came.  First a couple verses, then words.  Simple words.  Words of God’s love for His people.  Words of how I had experienced that love in my own life.  My fingers were flying trying to write it all down as the thoughts came flooding in.

A few minutes later I had it complete with a whole 10 minutes left to eat dinner and get my stuff together (talk about cutting it close!).  It was not at all what I had planned and was so much simpler than anything I would have imagined, but that was what the Lord wanted me to say so I packed it up and headed out the door.

We got to the church and they were all ready for us.  They had a microphone and chairs for each of us set up outside and there were a few women and a bunch of children sitting there waiting.

The Pastor came up and led some worship in Telugu, then they asked us to sing our songs.  We began to sing one worship song after another, praising God and proclaiming His power over that place.  Our translator told us that they have had other groups come in before, but none that sang like we did so they wanted more and more.

One thing that I have seen throughout this trip is the gift of music that God has given this team – when we sing together, God always shows up in an amazing way and we are flooded with His presence.  I think the people there felt it too and it made them want more, so we gave them more.

After singing for what seemed like way longer than it probably was, it was time to share the gospel.  By this time there were people gathered all around to watch the white people and to see what we had to say.

It was amazing to see the way that God put the whole evening together from what He gave each of us to talk about to the order He had us go in.  We couldn’t have planned it better if we tried.

Alicia spoke first and really set the tone.  She shared the gospel in a very clear and precise way while also sharing some of her own experiences and struggles and how she had come to the conclusion that our God is the one and only God.

She was followed by a song and then Kady got up and shared a beautiful message about the faithfulness of God and the way He has always kept and will continue to keep His promises.

Another song and then it was my turn.  I shared my very simple message of God’s love and the way that He pursues us because of that love.  

Becca finished us off with a powerful call from Isaiah to forsake idols and turn to the Lord.  Satan tried to stop it.  He took out the lights, but He couldn’t take out The Light and the Lord’s word continued to be preached in the dark – literally and figuratively.

After a final song, we invited everyone to come to the front to receive prayer and God worked mightily in that as well.  Most of the time we couldn’t understand what they wanted us to pray for, but God showed up yet again and guided our prayers for each and every individual.

It’s hard to know how much of an impact we made, but I know that a lot of good was done that night and God used our words, our songs, and our prayers in some mighty ways.

Most of the people that were there came from remote villages, are not Christian, and would probably have never come to that church if it wasn’t for the fact that we had come all the way from America and they were curious.

I feel like sometimes it’s hard to know how much of a lasting impact you are making on trips like this so it was a blessing to know that there is a church there that will continue to be there long after we are gone.  We brought people to that church.  They may not all come back, but even if just one person does doesn’t that make it worth it?  We have planted the seeds and the church will be there to continue to water.

Over all it was just a beautiful night filled with God’s presence and His power!

One thing about it though that sticks out to me the most is what God showed me through what He had me speak to these people.

God used the simplicity of what He had given me to say to not only remind me of the fact that He can use anything to serve His purpose, but also to keep me from being prideful because it is very obvious that anything that came or will come out of what I said is totally the work of God and not from any wisdom or skill of mine.

It is such an amazing and peaceful feeling to know that you have said what God wanted you to say and He is going to use that how He will use it.  I have done my job and now God will do the rest.

We don’t need to have all of the answers or the right words to say.  We don’t need to have everything figured out all of the time.  We don’t need to be the ultimate Bible expert.  We just need to be willing to let God use us and speak through us and trust Him to do the rest.

God wants to use you for His Kingdom.  Don’t let your doubts or lack of competence in your own eyes hold you back.

God will accomplish what He wants to accomplish.  He doesn’t have to use you but He wants to.  Will you let Him?