Missions

Updates / Stories / Awareness

 

MISSIONS MOMENT

from our Missionary Billy Hall in Ethiopia

 

…I was busy trying to cook dinner one evening and my daughter Joanna was eager to “help” me. The kitchen of our apartment was too small for a daddy with his 5 or 6 year old daughter to move in.  “But daddy I want to help you”, she squeeked with her little voice. ”Please sweetheart, get out of the kitchen so I can finish making dinner”, I said, trying not to be angry with her. She persisted until I had to firmly tell her to stay and watch me from outside the kitchen. She sat down with a pouting lip and broken heart looking at me.

I felt so bad now, and then a soft whisper in my ear, “Billy, get out of the kitchen.” “Like you are trying to make dinner, I have been trying to answer your prayer; and you keep ‘wanting to help Me’. This is why the answer has been so long in coming to you, because you keep getting in My way.” Suddenly, I felt myself joining my precious little girl on the floor with my pouting lip and broken heart saying, “Gee God, I just wanted to help.”

 

THOUGHT

With God, thinking we have to help Him answer our prayer. We go to the altar in a church service to pray about a problem and instead of “leaving it there” for God to take care of, we drag it back to our seat when we leave the altar, asking ourself “now, what I am I going to do about this problem.”  We give Him our problem and then we take it back from Him when we doubt, reason, or worry about what we are going to do. The enemy even taunts us saying “Now, what are YOUgoing to do about YOUR problem. YOU have to do something!”

What’s our response? “Well, devil, this is what I am going to do about my problem; I am going to Praise God for taking care of this problem, which by the way is not MY problem it is now OUR problem, Jesus and me.  ’He’s going to do His part and He will show and tell me what, if anything, I should do about OUR problem.’ “

God has His written Word, our personal fellowship with Him, sermons, people, and even little daughters like Joanna to speak to us with wisdom and direction concerning problems we face. Let’s keep our spiritual ears open with surrendered hearts so we can hear and learn the lessons from these “teachable moments” of our life.

 Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge Him,and He will direct thy path.

~Proverbs 3:5-6

 

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

~1 John 5:14-15

 

IN CLOSING

When we remember all the times God has answered our prayers and helped us through difficult times, it becomes only natural to trust in Him completely.  When we give our problem to God we must leave it with Him and wait expectantly for Him to tell us what we must do - and trust Him to do whatever else is necessary to fulfill our answered prayer. God really doesn’t need our “help”; in fact we hinder Him not help Him when we interfere in His work with fear, doubt, and reasonings.  

 

PRAYER

Let’s pray; Thank You Father for being so patient with us as Your children. Because we are children we are still learning to trust You completely.  Thank You for always being here, so very near to us, to hear our prayer - even the prayers we pray silently. Help us now to remember Your consistent faithfulness and simply cast all our cares upon You the way a little child does to their loving Father.  We admit that too many times we are busy trying to be “grown up” and mature that we forget how to be like a little child - trusting You absolutely the way little children trust their parents who love them.  Now, help us to continue following and trusting You in all our ways so that the world we live in will see Your mighty deeds and wonders in our life - and we can boast about how great and loving our Father God is to us. We love You so much Father. All this we ask in Jesus Mighty Name. AMEN.

 

Thank you, each of you, for your prayer and financial support to our mission. Our Mission: The Gospel of Jesus Christ TO Everyone, Everywhere, BY Anyone!

 

Be the difference in someone’s life today. In your school classroom, on your job, in your 
neighborhood, ON YOUR FACEBOOK!

Tell the World that they don’t have to live in hopelessness, shame, and regret - they can experience a new day every day walking with Almighty God as His son and daughter.

 

Sincerely,
 

Billy Hall

Praise Chapel Ethiopia - Hands of Hope Foundation