Who, Me?

If you’re like me, few things are as exciting as a calling from God to do the impossible. But also, few things are as difficult as actually following through on that calling!

I recently discovered some principles for how God does impossible things through us, ways we tend to short-circuit what He’s doing, and how to persevere to fulfillment of His calling. Let me know what you think!

How God Will Do Impossible Things Through You

1. God will give you an assignment that you can’t do.

About a month ago, I completed an online course about blogging. The big action step at the end of the course was to do Challenge 44, which is writing 44 blogs in 90 days. I would write 30 blogs during the first 30 days, 10 blogs during the next 30 days, and 4 blogs during the last 30 days. The teacher of the online course gave lots of inspiring and practical advice on how to do that. 

The purpose of the entire 90 days that I learn one thing for improvement after each blog, and then implement that learning when I write the next blog.

The program really resonated with who I am and what God is calling me to do, and I sensed God's strong prompting to do it.

But here’s the thing. I’ve only written 40 blogs during the entire six years that I’ve been blogging. So now I’m going to write 44 blogs in just 90 days?! I knew that I cannot do that. I can't come up with ideas fast enough. After I get an idea, it takes me weeks to write one blog. I’ve never been a consistent blogger, but instead I send a rotating list of older blogs every week to my ever-increaseing number of subscribers. Long story short: I'M NOT A GREAT BLOGGER! What if I email the almost-500 subscribers to my blog that I’m going to do this, and then I flop big-time?!

2. The Holy Spirit will indwell, inspire, and guide you.

In spite of my fear and trembling, I knew the moment God put the crazy idea of Challenge 44 in my head, that I would obey His call!

I knew I could not do it in my own power and ability. But I knew God could do it through me.

And I wanted so much to do it. Challenge 44 would build my skills and confidence to pursue my calling.

Eventually, I want to publish books about Christian calling and growing in Christ through a traditional publishing house. I’ve written many books throughout my life, but none of them have been published by a traditional publisher. That requires an exemplary level of skill and a huge pool of people primed and eager to buy the author’s books.

I still have trouble believing that will ever happen. I even feel hesitant to express that dream, because it might sound egotistical. However, at some level, I’ve known since childhood that God wanted to impact His Kingdom through my writing.

So, yes. I sent the emails to my 500 email subscribers, telling them what I planned to do and why, and inviting them on the journey.

3. God will force you to struggle!

And so began my first 30 days of Challenge 44, writing one blog every day for 30 business days. I believe in Sabbath and Sanity, so I don’t blog on weekends!

Surprisingly enough, I quickly and easily wrote the first two blogs of Challenge 44 in under 4 hours each. Looking back, I’m convinced God carried me totally in His arms during those blogs, just to give me the joy and success that I needed to launch this big venture.

The blog you are now reading is Number 13 of Challenge 44.

I have indeed struggled to write every single blog since Number 2! My writing wandered too much. I didn’t narrow the focus enough for the main point. The Action Steps were too general. The blogs started getting so long that my dear husband’s dinner appeared more than an hour past due. I'm so blessed that he's such a supportive sweetheart! 🙂

As I write between my coaching calls with clients I’m called to serve, and between important planned and unplanned tasks and errands, it's difficult to maintain writing momentum.

4. God will grow you and your calling through your struggles and successes.

Oh, how God is growing me!

One day, I was a quarter of the way through my four-hour time block for blogging, and I still didn’t even have any idea what to write about! I prayed, but nothing came. Finally, I just picked an idea and started writing. And it worked! That blog became a 4-part series that has already received more comments and email feedback than any other blog I’ve written. I entitled the series “My Dirty Little Secrets and How God Is Redeeming Them.”

The daily crunch means that I don’t have much time to doubt myself or my discernment of how God is guiding me. But since I know God wants me to do this, I trust He’s working, even when I don't feel that He is.

My self-confidence is growing—not just in my ability to write, but also in my ability to write WITH Him.

5. God will encourage and celebrate you!

Sometimes, after I write a blog or a section of a blog, I stop and thank God. Or I stop and listen to Him. He often gives me a “Way or go!”, a high-five, a Bible verse of encouragement, or just a great feeling of flowing with Him as I do my calling.

6. God will accomplish HIS purposes through you.

If Challenge 44 had been MY idea—and not God’s—my purpose for it would be that my list of blog subscribers grows from 500 to 1,000 or more. But God clearly told me that the purpose of Challenge 44 is not that, but to grow me and my ability to write well.

And actually, people are UNsubscribing from my blog faster than usual. Before, that would have seriously shaken my confidence. However, I know that the reason is that those people are, for whatever reasons, not the best fit for what I write. On the other hand, new people are also signing up. The rate of new sign-ups isn’t as high as I would like. But I keep reminding myself that God’s purpose for Challenge 44 is not to grow my list of subscribers but to grow me.

What Happens If You Short-Circuit God’s Process

1. You surrender to the doubts—yours or other people’s—that you can do it.

Let’s settle it, here and now. You CAN’T do it. You CAN’T do the impossible without God! That’s the point!

Mark Batterson says, “If you’re big enough for your dream, your dream isn’t big enough for God.”

God calls and empowers us to do impossible things that we could not do on our own.

Jesus tells us, “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

God CAN do impossible things through YOU!

When we allow self-doubt to prompt delay in accepting God’s impossible assignment, the initial excitement and forward momentum can sputter, fade, and can eventually die.

Allow the truth of God’s love and purposes for your life to propel you forward!

2. You allow the inevitable struggles to drag you down.

When God calls you to act, He calls you to struggle!

Struggling makes us learn and grow into our calling. Struggling helps us remember that it is God who empowers the process and brings the results, not us. Struggling strengthens us for the bigger calling that is ahead.

3. You ignore God’s inevitable celebrations of you and your successes.

Is it hard for you to hear God congratulate you and approve you? Do you pick up on that?

Our natural tendency is to shy away from good feelings about what we do, because we don’t want to fall victim to pride or take credit for what God does.

But one of the transformational ways that God talks to us is by celebrating with us how we are living out who he created us to be and what He created us to do. Accept with gladness those Holy High-Fives!

4. You insist on your own purposes for the assignment instead of accepting His purposes.

As I’ve said, if Challenge 44 had been my idea, my purpose would have been to grow my list of blog subscribers. But His purposes were to grow me and grow my writing skills. If growing my list of blog subscribers is part of His plan for my writing in the future, that will come later, not now.

I could grouse about that. Or I could obsess with so-called “vanity numbers," such as the number of blog subscribers, number of Facebook clicks or shares, number of comments on my blog pages, etc. But that would consume time that I could otherwise spend on GOD’S purposes for my writing, AND it would drag my attitude and my writing down into the gutter.

How to Persevere to Victory in Your Calling

1. When you discover what God’s assignment is, don’t overthink it.

When God calls, He rarely gives map! He often just gives you the first step. Take it, and trust Him for the next step, and the next, and the next. As you gain experience doing that with multiple assignments, your trust in God and your confidence in yourself will grow.

2. Ride the initial wave!

When you take that first step toward God’s impossible assignment, God often gives an encouraging burst of initial success to get you going. Dance with joy! Or if you’re not a dancer, just thank Him with a lot of uncharacteristic enthusiasm! 🙂

3. Take advantage of your struggles to learn and grow.

When you take on God’s impossible assignment, you’ll have to grow into it. Give yourself grace. Share your struggles to help others! Learn as much as you possibly can. Surprisingly enough, you’ll look back on this season of great struggling as one of the most impactful times of your life.

4. Respond with gratitude and joy to God’s accolades!

God loves you, is for you, and wants you to succeed in your calling. He created you for that, and he loves watching you become fully who you are and do what He created you to do.

5. Stay focused on God’s purposes for your assignment, and don’t get distracted or discouraged by your own purposes.

Many times, especially when calls you to a new assignment that requires that you learn many new things, His goal isn’t necessary that you’re immediately GOOD or SUCCESSFUL by the world’s standards as you begin to do the assignment. His purposes are often simply to grow YOU and your SKILLS.

Action Steps

1. Review “How God Will Do Impossible Things Through You.” 

How have you seen these 6 steps in your own life and calling?

2. Review “What Happens If You Short-Circuit God’s Process.”

When did you short-circuit God’s work in these ways in your life and calling?

How are you doing that now?

3. Review “How to How to Persevere to Victory in Your Calling.”

Share!

I would love it if you would post your comments, encouragement, questions, etc., below!

Would you also please share this blog on social media or via email using the share buttons at the side or bottom of your screen?

Thank you!