God still does things!

I wanted to share a couple of stories of what God has been doing in our youth group. Because even in 2008... God still does things!

Last week I was preparing to teach. We've been going through the book of John bit by bit. It was my turn to teach and I was so excited because I got to teach about Jesus walking on water! Which is one of my very favorite stories (although I have many). So as I was preparing, I was struggling. I wanted so badly to focus on the miracle that Jesus did in walking on the water. But God was pulling me a different direction. So Wednesday night, I got up to speak... not knowing ENTIRELY where I was going with this.

That happens to be quite often. Sometimes I know right away where God wants me to go, other times, I don't know until the last minute, and still other times, I walk up on that stage without a clue what is going to come out of my mouth. But God has taught me to trust Him and He always comes through! Wednesday was one of those days. I knew where I WASN'T going to go, but I just continued to pray and let God do His thing.

I spoke about how the disciples were scared when they saw Jesus, but as soon as He called out to them, they were no longer afraid. They knew His voice. The reason they knew His voice is because they had a relationship with Him. I talked about the importance of having a relationship with God so you recognize His voice. The story goes on to talk about how the people who he'd left went looking for Him. I talked about how there are times we feel like we cant hear from God... and instead of just waiting around, we need to SEEK Him. At the end, I asked the teens if they wanted to hear from God. I asked them to come to the cross (our version of an alter) and spend time praying and making sure they had a relationship with God and that it was right. And then we prayed and asked that God would speak to them. The cross was FILLED with students.

I began to feel very lightheaded and short of breath the second I walked on that stage. I knew that God was going to do something big because Satan was working overtime. As soon as I finished saying what I had to say, I turned it over to Javier to pray and I went to the back and dropped. I laid on the floor for quite a while trying to get my breath back. In the mean time, God was doing things in the lives of our kids.

I've been struggling lately with feeling inadequate. I've struggled with God's call on my life and wondered if I'm living it out the way He wants me to. Over and over I've doubted myself and what God is doing through me. It's been an ongoing battle the last couple of months, and every time I begin to struggle with it, God gives me encouragement. Usually in the form of a teen that comes and tells me how much they love me and how glad they are that I am their youth pastor. Last week I was really fighting with this. I was feeling more discouraged than I had in a very long time. Before the service, I was asking God just to reveal something to me... to make it clear that I am where I'm supposed to be.

God very clearly showed Himself and the way that He is using me when one of my teens came up to me after almost everyone had gone home. He talked to me about some of the things he'd been thinking about and what was going on in his life. Then he told me he thinks God is calling him to ministry...

I cried.

Because God still does things. God still uses people... even when we feel inadequate.

You see, there are things Ive started taking for granted. I realized that on Wednesday night. I take for granted that there are new kids every week, and every week there are kids returning from the week before. I take for granted that kids respond to our messages EVERY WEEK. I take for granted that our teens worship God with their hearts, regardless of what their friends think. And I take for granted that kids make decisions to accept Christ and follow Him and trust Him.

It is my job to teach these kids... but last week, God taught me a huge lesson.

God still does things.