Never Say Never

Have you ever said, "Never!" to God?  Oh my, we all wish we could answer that with an emphatic, “No!”  The truth is, we probably all have made this untoward mistake at some time or another.

I can remember a few times I said, “Never!” & they both involved locations!  I told the Lord I did not want to move back to my hometown, but that’s exactly where He sent us to base our ministry in 1993.  Believe it or not, I also told him I didn’t ever want to live in Europe.  For me, I wanted God to send me to the hard places and not the fancy places.  Yes, I cried when He first told us to move to Barcelona. 

I know, what was I thinking! 

Here is what I learned: He is smarter than me!   It’s true, we think we see the big picture; He actually does see it.  He says,  “He will give you the desires of your heart.” in Psalms 37:4.  He also knows how to fulfill each one.  Pioneering our ministry from our hometown ended up allowing us to go forth surrounded by a group who supported us & sustained us. 

What about Europe?  Well, I fell in love with Spain & that love remains to this day.  It’s a country that has helped carve the course of our ministry & where I can call home.  I guess you could say that He knows more about the desires of our hearts than we even do.

I’m so thankful I didn’t follow the times I said, “ Never!” but followed Him.

I wonder what my life would be like had I not had to eat those words & do what I thought I didn’t want to do.  It just might be the same way with you.  To get to your dreams, you may have to do a few things you thought you could not do.  We have some great examples to follow of people who would have never done some things if they just looked at the situation using common sense…

Would Israel have gone into desert? Never.

Would Moses have crossed the Red Sea? Never.

Would the disciples have thought they could feed a multitude? Never.

We sure can limit God’s ability to move by our stubbornness.  Thankfully, Moses did have the priests step into the Jordan in Joshua 3 & the disciples did begin passing out what looked like just a few loaves of bread in Mark 8.  You see, these acts of impossibilities brought forth the power of God because  “With God all things are possible.”  Mathew 19:26

Wonderfully, it’s the same with us.  Those things that we find ourselves saying we’d never do are usually the steps of faith required to get us to the other side.  Yes, they took the children of Israel to their Promise & they will take us there too.

So, what do we learn?  Our words are powerful and can hinder us from going forth.  We know that our positive words can move mountains (Mk 11:23), but we also need to realize that our negative ones can hold back our dreams.

I dare you today to get rid of the “never” or all the reasons why you think you can’t do something.

I dare you to picture yourself doing what you thought you could not do. 

I dare you to simply say, “Yes, God! ” to whatever He asks of you.

Never say, “Never!”

~Judi Jo