Unstoppable by Christine CaineSample

“Ready” is a tricky word when it comes to following Jesus and doing his will. Why? Because there is a vast difference between feeling ready and being ready. We can go through the Bible page by page and find person after person who didn’t feel ready to do what God called them to do, but God didn’t ask them whether they felt ready. He decided they were ready, and then he called them and told them what to do. Today, we call those men and women heroes of the faith--the ones who obeyed God’s call, even when they didn’t feel ready. Heroes like Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Sarah (Hebrews 11).

Haven’t we all been there? When we had to step up or step out before we felt we were ready?

I remember when Kalli, one of our first leaders in one of our aftercare homes in Greece, experienced this. When she started working for A21, she felt like she wasn’t ready to run her race, but one night she got a call from Katja, a young woman who had escaped from her traffickers. Reaching her in time, before she was recaptured, was crucial. Kalli flew into action, trusting in the Lord, determined not to depend on her own strength and understanding, determined not to think about how inadequate she felt or how unprepared she felt. Kalli reached Katja in time and got her to safety--and Kalli learned that what seems impossible is often God’s starting point in using us for his good and his glory. It’s where we often  discover God’s perspective of feeling ready vs. being ready.

When we learn to focus on who God is rather than on what we are not, we see that it is God who is working in us to do the very thing he has purposed to do in our lives. As we learn to run the race, accept his batons, and submit to his training, God’s work in and through us is always growing and increasing. Christ in us becomes an unstoppable force in our lives and is spilled out into the lives of others. Trust God that what he has prepared you for what’s he’s prepared for you.

What baton is God asking you to grasp next? Are you ready to grasp and run with your baton, whatever it is and wherever it takes you?

Adapted from Unstoppable: Step into Your Purpose, Run Your Race, Embrace the Future by Christine Caine. Copyright © 2014 by Christine Caine. Reprinted with permission of Zondervan Publishing. All rights reserved.