When God calls He equips and enables – Part II

            The previous blog mentioned my lack of experience as a cause of concern and how the Lord opened a door for me to get practical experience and training in Dublin as I continued my preparations for service in Japan.

            We learn the most when times are hard and that was certainly the case in Ireland.  As newly weds we were suddenly thrust into communal living.  Initially this was as house parents to the ladies on the team!  Later in the year we moved into a house of men.  Not the best move for newly weds nor something we would advise now.  The Bible is clear in its advice to young men when they marry that their first year should be without undue responsibilities (Deuteronomy 24:5).      

            Among the many lessons that I learnt during that time, two stand out as key for me as our preparation progressed towards leaving for Japan.

            A big lesson the Lord taught me was the meaning of trust or faith in God.  These words can be interchanged readily.  Two things helped me in my understanding of this truth. 

One was my belief that I should be able to gain victory over the problems I was experiencing.  Try as hard as I might this elusive victory, whatever it was, was not becoming a reality in my life.  I prayed hard for God to give me this victory.  Perhaps it was that I didn’t have enough faith?  I prayed for more faith.  But the weeks and months passed and I didn’t seem to be making any progress with this problem.  What was wrong? 

The second thing which contributed to me ultimately finding this victory was the time I was given to do a Bible study.  As part of our team experience we were given the opportunity to take classes and our team decided that they wanted to learn to touch type.  I could already touch type having learnt it at school.  I was therefore given the opportunity to do other studies.  This proved pivotal in providing answers to the two key lessons that I needed to learn.

I had heard previously that 2 Corinthians was Paul’s missionary handbook.  So I thought that would be a good book to study for a missionary in preparation while the rest of the team were out at their class.  This proved to be God’s over ruling because the key lesson that I learnt from that study was that God is everything and has done everything.  From our salvation, our call, our sufficiency, our service, our spiritual gifts down to our final glory – all that we have and are now in Christ is all of God.  Furthermore, in our weakness God’s grace enables us to be strong.  This was a new revelation to me, and it gave me greater confidence in God that every aspect of my life was all part of his plan and provision.

This provided the answer to my first question – how do I get victory over my problems.  The very clear truth that came across to me was that I didn’t need to strive, need more faith or anything else that I could do to make it happen – God had already given me the victory.  I needed to believe it.  Because I had everything I needed for the situation I was facing.  I thanked God for the victory he had given me and left the problems with him.  The amazing thing that happened was that, in one sense, nothing happened!  The problem didn’t suddenly vanish.  It was still very much present, but what did happen was that God changed my attitude to the problem, so that it became more bearable.  It was as though I had a burden lifted from my heart.  I felt lighter in my spirit, and was able to cope with the problem until our time in the Republic of Ireland came to an end.

The answer to the second problem I had – can I really do the work of a missionary that I thought I was expected to do, was also answered.  If God has done everything for me as I discovered from my study of 2 Corinthians, then I don’t need to worry because if God calls me to a specific work, he will also equip me to be able to do it.  All I needed to do was trust Him and follow His leading and he would equip me to do it what he was leading me into.  This became a reality when I was thrown into the deep end when we moved from Kobe to Nobeoka in Kyushu. This was after our first term in Japan which had been spent mainly in language study.  The first six weeks or so that we were there I was asked to speak quite a number of times in Japanese, firstly at a camp and then in church.  Previous to this I had only spoken once every couple or so months but God is faithful and enabled me to do something I thought I would never be able to do. 

As a result of our time in the Republic of Ireland, God provided the answer to my biggest concern about serving him in Japan – can I meet the expectations of the mission field.  What God taught me instead was that I need not worry about expectations or whether I could do it, but rather as I trusted God He would guide and enable me to do everything He wanted me to do.  I needed to thank him and rest on His grace and power for all he was going to do in and through me.