A Genuine Willingness

Sometimes somebody comes along who changes your life. They impact it in such a way that you know their influence, their spirit, their zeal, their steadiness of character, their immovability, or their resolve, will stay with you forever. The Bible is full of such individuals—David, Paul, Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Ruth, Elizabeth, Mary, and the list goes on.  They impacted those around them. They left a mark on history. Perfect? None of them. Committed?  All of them.

What made their stories different? What made them different? What made them people we can emulate and from whom we can learn? Willingness.  A genuine willingness to turn to the Lord, to rely on His strength, and to have faith in His plan even in the midst of hardship or persecution, doubt, fear or failure. They did not do everything infallibly, but their authentic intentionality toward the things of God made their legacy in the faith viable.

We, too, can become heroes in the faith—not by becoming famous or renowned but by living out what we believe, answering the call on our life (even if it’s inconvenient and changes our plans, our location, our job, our retirement…) and by glorifying and magnifying the name of Jesus Christ in our daily walk. And, if we fail along the way or wrestle in our weakness, as many of the heroes in the faith did, we do not give up but get up again and press forward.   

Look here at Paul as he shares a struggle he encountered even while fulfilling the call on his life:  “…I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  2 Corinthians 12:7b,8-10

Today, take the time to be in the Word.  Read Hebrews 11…and even chapter 12. Let the testimonies of the saints give you courage and encourage you as you walk out your faith.

–Katie Botello