You are perfectly equipped for your personal mission. God has given you passion, skills, and talent, but at times you will feel totally unequipped. There will be moments or seasons when you will feel stretched; your mission will be “bigger than you.”
Sometimes your mission will be bigger than you because you have a larger-than-life dream that God has placed in your heart, and you know you can’t complete it without Him. Other times, He may strategically thrust you into a mission to glorify Him and you know you will fail without His help. Either way, the mission won’t be easily achieved.
When God called Joshua to a “marching mission” to make the walls of Jericho fall down, there was no way that he could accomplish this mission in his own strength. Joshua used his gifts and talents but he was stretched far beyond his own strength and resources because he needed God’s power to experience “mission accomplished.” This is why God was glorified when the walls came tumbling down. Joshua couldn’t take credit.
When God put it in Nehemiah’s heart to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, he didn’t have the supplies he needed. He had the natural skills, talents, and passion to do the job. He was a leader, a strategist, and he was bold. But just like Joshua, Nehemiah couldn’t accomplish the mission without God’s help. God had to give Nehemiah favor with King Artaxerxes to accomplish the task because it was “bigger than” Nehemiah.
When God told Moses that He was sending him to speak to Pharaoh to convince him to let the Israelites go, Moses felt incapable. He said, “Oh Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10). Moses asked God to send someone else in his place. As a result, God sent Aaron with Moses to speak for him. Even though Moses felt inadequate, it didn’t stop God from using him for a mission. And just like Joshua and Nehemiah, he needed God to show up because Moses’ mission was “bigger than” him.
When God wants to demonstrate His glory and make His name great, He isn’t looking for the most capable person or the one who believes they are self-sufficient. He is looking for the person who is willing to use what He has placed in his or her hand to partner with Him to accomplish what seems impossible.
If you don’t have a mission to glorify God that is bigger than you, ask Him to give you one. Say, “Lord, how can I glorify you to fulfill your purposes in the world? Lord, use me for something bigger than me! God, stretch me! Give me your big mission for my life so that I can make you famous.”
Tragically, most of us dream far too small. The only missions we have for God are the ones we can control and accomplish by our own strength and with the resources we already possess. Dream big for God and remember this: What you can do in your own strength is only the beginning of how He can use you for His glory to change the lives of others.
