Sometimes the pain in the world seems overwhelming. Wars. Famine. Hatred. Pain. Selfishness. I could go on and on. It so overwhelms me that I’ve actually removed all news apps from my phone and hardly ever check the news online. When I’m surrounded by the news of the sin in our world it can sometimes seem like that there’s nothing I can do to make a difference.
When I get into a place where I’m overwhelmed with the nature of the world around us, it’s often easy to turn inward and stuff those feelings down to think about them “later”. But then when later comes they’re just concerns piled on concerns and not only are my feelings not eased but they’re compounded.
One thing that I wish I did more instinctively, but am still trying to put into practice, is turning upward when I’m feeling so overwhelmed. Looking for little things that I can do to make a difference in this world. Satan wants us to feel like there is nothing that we can do to make a difference but God tells us that that is not true.
“He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch on its branches.””
– Matthew 13:31-32
God is telling us here that like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed, that our small acts will grow with God’s grace and multiply to be huge, world changing acts.
I am now trying to turn to God in prayer when I feel like the world is out of control and feel like that as one small person in Alabama I can’t make a difference. One place that I love to go and pray is at the
Compassion Sponsor a Child page. I will go through and look at the children and pray for them. By name. By nation. In whatever way I can, I will pray for these children.
I pray over their families. That, if their parents are still in their families, that their parents have jobs and are encouraging them. That they are learning that they are important and they can rise above the poverty with an education. That they are healthy and getting the medical care that they need. That they feel loved and cherished to God if to no one else on Earth. That God will press upon the hearts of many to support these children with their gifts, their prayers, and their time.
Sometimes just looking through them can get overwhelming too because, really, there are so many of them. So many children in such desperate need. Living in conditions that we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy. With little to no food. Next to no opportunities. And devoid of encouragement from adults.
But as my mind spirals downward, I lift my eyes upwards and focus on what I can do for each of these children.
I can’t sponsor all of them. But what I can’t provide for them financially, I can cover them with prayer. And my small prayers, like the mustard seed, can be used by our Great God, to be turned into huge blessings for these children.
I ask you to please join with me this month and every month and reach out from your small corner of the world, in whatever small way that you can, to make a huge impact.
*If you are interested in becoming a
Compassion Blogger please check out their
webpage.
Compassion is providing incentives like free e-books for participating in their blogging month. For information about what is possibly being provided check out their
blog post about the blog month. But even if they weren’t providing any incentives (which they haven’t until now), I would still be blogging about the organization because I feel strongly about the work that it is doing throughout the world.
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January 10, 2016 at 3:20 pm[…] The Mustard Seed by Rev. David Bast at Words of Hope I found this message while writing my Compassion post last weekend and loved it. Rev. Bast explains the mustard seed parable very well and encouraged me that even […]