If you are a mother of a little girl, you know the story of Cinderella quite well. No matter how much her stepmother tried to ruin life for her, she never gave up. Even when it seemed she wouldn’t be able to go to the ball, she repurposed an old gown for the event. Of course, this didn’t work and she was left at home in a ruined gown while her stepmother and stepsisters went off to meet the prince at the ball. It was only when she had given up hope that her fairy godmother appeared and magically transformed her circumstances.
We are often like Cinderella, trying to find ways to mend our circumstances and make things turn out the way we want. It is only when we reach the end of our resources, our strength, that God is able to intervene. He does not use magic to transform our circumstances, but instead uses those circumstances to transform us. He seeks to remind us daily that He is in control even when it doesn’t seem that way.
Letting Go
Ministry is often about spending much of our time in those dark places where we feel that there is no hope. We work with people who have lost hope and we try to instill in them some of ours. We often act like Cinderella, trying to find ways to make things work the way we want in our own power. It is not until we let go and stand back that God is able to work.
As we spend time with people in our chosen ministries, we develop relationships with them. We watch them struggle and want to see them move past their problems. Or we may see our ministry fail as it seems not to accomplish its intended purpose. We try to make a difference with our own strength. It is not until we give up and let go of our feeble attempts that we allow God to take over.
Once we are willing to let go, we often see God do His greatest work. Greater things than we could have imagined happen, and we finally understand.
A New Direction
Many times, the reason we can’t let go of something is because we know what we want to happen. We have everything planned out and on a timeline. When things fail, we don’t understand why because it seemed like such a perfect plan.
Plans fail either because they didn’t fit God’s timeline or it wasn’t the direction He intended for us to go. He may direct us in a different direction or He may delay things until the time is right. The problem is that we want to know the end result, the destination instead of following the path we are given. We want to know that we are going to the ball instead of getting dressed and waiting to find out where He is taking us. Even when we look back and see how God worked in our past circumstances, we have a difficult time trusting blindly for future situations. We must be constantly reminded that we don’t need to know the answers as long as we know the One Who has them. That is when our ministries will be most successful according to God’s definition.
