Do you remember playing hide and seek when you were a kid? My sisters and I would play that game and I remember someone would go hide and someone would count to ten and then declare, “Ready or not, here I come!”. Then, if I was the one hiding, I would hold my breath and hope that my sister wouldn’t see or hear me in my hiding place.
When I think about that phrase, “Ready or not, here I come”, it reminds me of some other times when I held my breath and waited in anticipation and/or dread for something to happen. Do you know that feeling? It reminds me of the time when I was about seven months pregnant with our first child. I was so excited to be a mom, but at about the seventh month of pregnancy, I began thinking to myself that this child is getting rather large inside me and he is going to have to come out of me, and it is going to hurt! I began to fear the pain of delivery. I also began to have thoughts and worries about raising a child and wondering if I was prepared for this. I was only 20 years old. I would question myself and wonder why I ever thought I was prepared for this. What I found out though is that God is good and, as I parented the child He gave me, He prepared me to be a parent whether I thought I was ready or not.
Now my husband and I find ourselves in another place where we feel unprepared and not ready for what lies ahead of us. After 22 years of leading in and pastoring at larger, already established churches, God has called us to plant a brand new church. We are being called from leading a megachurch to now step out with a mega amount of faith and trust Him to do something we have never done before! It is a daunting task – something that we are not prepared to do on our own. We need the Lord now more than ever before. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul said that he had pleaded for the Lord to take away something that had been tormenting him but the Lord responded to him by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Then Paul responded by saying, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” I once again am in a situation where I feel weak and unprepared, but God’s grace is sufficient for me and His power is made perfect in my weakness. Praise God that He gives us the strength to accomplish His purposes. Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
He says to me today, “Ready or not, here I come!” and I respond to him by saying “My hope is in you, Lord. Renew my strength and make your power perfect in my weakness!”
TriciaHudson.com 