Day 1 "Whatever It Takes"

Today, we strike out on another “Prayer Journey,” Matthew 19: 26 says “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” “God has a very strange sense of humor.” is what many people say but I think it is more along the lines of God’s knows more than we know. In May of 2008, the Greater Bethel Church celebrated breaking ground on a nearly 3million dollar building project and the excitement was at a fever pitch. There were smiles, laughter, cheers, hugs and pride beaming from the aged members all the way down to the small children who yelled and scream as they held-up sign saying, “Whatever It Takes!” Little did we know that we would have to really live up to that promise.

In August of 2008, the church embarked on a Capital Stewardship Campaign [CSC] called “Time2Build” using Matthew 19:26 as the scripture reference. The membership made pledged to give to the CSC for the next 3years over and above their regular tithes and offerings. Who knew but God that economists would announce that as a country we had just entered a “recession?” As a pastor who has just entered into a building program that’s really not what you want to hear. At a time when there are hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of invoices and thousand dollar worth of change orders flying across your desk everyday. As that ugly word “recession” began to grow across this country like the old black & white movie the “blob” everybody began to tighten their belts [so-to-speak].

We couldn’t have asked for a better contractor on the project or for better weather. We where ahead of schedule and it was as if winter had come and gone without any effect on the project. From May 2008 to January 2009 it was perfect – problem free, care free and then all [you know what] break loose. After weeks of negotiation the project was halted [I’ll share the detail soon as well as the lesson I learned as a leader in an upcoming blog] but nearly 5 months later and God reminds me of what He had laid on my heart as we started this journey.

Let me be very transparent here, there has been some days when I wanted to lay down and die. I was one of them who would say I’ve never thought about suicide in a bragging and degrading way but guess what can’t say that any more. The last few months have been the toughest days of my 44 years. There have been and are enemies from without and within – and to top things off I’m having to deal with my own feeling of failure, inadequacy and shame. Honestly, I drop off because there was days when I could hardly even get out of bed and if I accomplished that I struggled all day trying to hold my head up. After several hard weeks and much prayer – and enough grace to make it to the pulpit enough times – God reminded me that I promised Him that I would do this with a “Whatever It Takes” attitude.

So, no matter what you might be facing today in ministry, life, career, marriage, parenting or what have you – You have to determine in your heart “Lord, Whatever It Takes!” That’s the attitude to take – you can’t lay down and die GET UP AND DO THE WORK! Be encouraged!

Day 1, scripture reading…Matthew 17: 14-20. “When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. [15] "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. [16] I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."
[17] "O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." [18] Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
[19] Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
[20] He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”