Partnering with God



Amanda with Lydia

 You might say God needing us is not a theologically sound statement, and I would probably agree with you.  When I say that God needs people, I'm not talking about needing in the sense that you think of us needing each other for some sort of fulfillment.  God is definitely all-sufficient, needing no one or nothing to fulfill Him.  But if you think about Him needing us in a different sense of the word, I think you might agree with me on this one.  God needs people in order to carry out His purposes and plans on this earth.  Does He have to do that? Absolutely not! He sets the worlds in place, tells the sun when to rise and fall, and still has the capability to deeply care about every single detail of our lives.  But what is amazing to me is that He chooses to work through people.  As imperfect and messed up as we are, He chooses to ask us to partner with Him in order to carry out His purposes and plans on this earth.  Think about how God chose to use Mary & Joseph in order to bring His Son into the earth. Think about the fact that Jesus could have come to earth without anybody else's help and had His ministry and been effective completely by Himself.  He could have healed people, drove out demons, taught  God's Word without any mortal's help.  Instead of doing all of that on His own, He chose to come to earth through Mary. When it was time to start His ministry, He chose 12 men to partner with Him to carry out His Father's will.  I know that Mary, Joseph, & the disciples were not perfect, but what they all had in common was a willingness to say yes to God when He asked them if they would   partner with Him.  You also have to consider the fact that the  choice to follow Jesus and say, “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord;let it be done to  me according to what you have said”, just as Mary did, was not an easy choice.  Mary endured tough circumstances and rejection from everyone close to her.  Even Joseph was going to quietly divorce her until the angel came & spoke to him.  The disciples were ridiculed and also rejected for their choice to follow Christ, many of their lives ending tragically.  But if you asked them if their choice to say yes to God was worth it, I would bet you my life that they would not hesitate one second before responding in the affirmative.

      I think that even today it is amazing that a perfect God comes to us as imperfect people and calls us to partner with Him to carry out something He would like to accomplish. I have recently had a situation in my life that has so clearly demonstrated to me that truth that God needs people.  I have chosen to be a surrogate mother and carry a child for an amazing couple that I know God loves so much.  It started with a desire in my heart to give someone what I have so graciously have been given 3 times, and that is the chance to hold a child in my arms and raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord for as long as God allows me to have them. I thank the Lord that I have not had to endure in my life that burden of empty arms, but I have seen in the lives of some very close friends how hard that burden can be to carry.  My desire has been to do whatever I can to help them carry that heartbreak and disappointment. So when the opportunity was put before me to be a surrogate, my heart immediately wanted to do it because it was a chance to DO something for somebody that has carried that burden of empty arms for 7 years. This was an opportunity to “not love in theory or speech but in deed and in truth” (1John 3:18) God showed me that this decision was all about this couple feeling loved by Him, to prove to them that He had not forgotten about their dreams nor had He abandoned them. The fact that He could use me to show His love to somebody in such in impactful way amazes me.  1 John 3 also says that “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His own life for us; and we ought to lay our lives down for our brothers and sisters in Him. But if anyone has this world's goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his  brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion to him, how can the love of God live and remain in him?”  When I read these scriptures I thought, could it be any clearer? Because God loved me enough to lay His life down for me, I should be willing to lay down my own life (or body in this case) for others. God has been so good to me in so many ways, and He has given me the gift of easy pregnancies.  God was calling me to open up my heart of compassion and use this gift He has blessed me with in order to show His love to a fellow believer in need. 

     This decision has changed me on the inside in ways I couldn't even begin to explain. (I guess it has changed me on the outside, too)  I will forever be grateful to the Lord that he chose me for this assignment and that He gave me the strength to say yes.  Many times in my life I have let fear, insecurity, and faithlessness keep me from going in a direction I know God was wanting me to go. When I think about that, my heart grieves for what I have possibly missed out on in my walk with God.  At this point in my life, I don't want to miss out on anything God has for me.  I have often thought about what Mary would have missed out on if her response would have been any different than what it was.  I guess you could say she would have missed out on some harsh treatment by her friends and family, but she  also would have missed out on carrying the Son of God, bringing Him into this world and witnessing the wonder of His birth, and raising Him under her authority until He was released into His ministry.  Scripture says that she “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” I have always loved that scripture. It makes me think that she knew she was involved in something so great that if she didn't stop and treasure up all those things and ponder them in her heart, she might miss something.  I don't think she wanted to miss one second of the life God had called her to, and I don't blame her. 

     My desire is to follow her example.  God has sweetly pointed out to me through different people in times of prayer that Mary was a kind of surrogate.  She got pregnant with a child that she knew was not her own, a child that she would have to release back to God one day.  Thinking about her has brought me a lot of comfort and reassurance, especially when questioning whether this was God's will.  I am not comparing myself to her in any way, but I have asked the Lord to help me respond to Him in the way she did.  I want to say yes even when it doesn't make sense.  I want to stop and ponder what God is doing because He has me involved in something so great, I don't want to miss one second of it.  I draw strength from her when I think about how she did what God wanted her to do, even when her family rejected her. Some times the path God calls us to follow can be hard and feel lonely at times, but the joy and peace He gives along the way far outweighs any of the tough circumstances we might endure. The joy I have felt along this journey He has me on has been unspeakable.  I want to proclaim His goodness and faithfulness because He makes the journey so worthwhile.  I love the fact that God needs us, and that He chooses to work in our lives.  I am forever amazed by Him and the way He uses people, even imperfect people with “issues” like me.  

Amanda Dawson
Abstinence Speaker for CareNet Pregnancy Centers