My Voice Matters

I was in church smack in the middle of singing in worship when the Holy Spirit began whispering to me – can you imagine if this song was never written because (the person who wrote it) decided there were enough worship songs in the world?

That would suck, I told Him. It’s a really good song. And it gives me a way to express all these things to you in a way I didn’t have before.

At this point I considered a world with only one love song, because all the musicians out there felt that that one song was enough for the countless expressions of love. It was a strange thought of an even stranger reality that had me singing with even more gratitude for all the wonderful songs out there.

Does what I’m doing matter (to anyone)?

It’s a question that none of us can really run from especially if you’re called to ministry – whether at the pulpit, the marketplace, in your home or elsewhere. If you think you escaped the ministry bit, say hello to the Great Commission that is a call to every believer who considers themselves a disciple of Christ. That includes you. 🙂

Over the years, I’ve had some variation of this talk with God. It started off with me asking – what’s the point of me doing this when all of these people are already doing the same thing? Gradually that eventually changed to me asking – how can I do this in a way that is true to who I am in You?

What happened in between?

I realized my voice matters.

There is a way that I relate with God that is unique to me and Him. The sum total of my experiences and encounters is unlike any there has ever been or there ever be. Don’t get me wrong. My experiences and encounters in and of themselves aren’t all that different from what others have gone through. But my response to these things, my response to God, that is unique to me. The combination of things that make me me are unique to me and that makes my expression in life different from that of others.

 A million of us could be standing before God singing the exact same song and each voice will be special to Him. If I closed my mouth in the midst of the 999,999 voices singing, He’ll know I stopped. He’ll know my voice is missing. Whether anyone else realizes it or not. God has a relationship with every believer out there but it doesn’t make His relationship with me any less valuable to Him. He has the capacity to love all of us deeply and richly.

When we approach ministry with the “good” intention of doing it for others, rather than first doing it as unto the Lord, we get stuck in the cycle of how others will respond to us and what we’re doing.

They’ve heard this before.

So and so is saying/doing it better than I ever will.

What will they think of me?

I’m not qualified enough to speak to them.

They don’t even like me.

When our service is first to God, then He is the sole point of reference. If He’s calling me to do something, the way He knows I’ll do it matters. My contribution to the voices that already exist is important to Him. Every opinion or say I or others may have is superseded by this truth – I matter to Him.

The devil has no power to take your call away from you. So he tries to do the next best thing – cripple it. One of the most effective ways this happens is getting people to believe that their voice doesn’t matter – that they don’t matter.

As someone in the ministry trenches, I can tell you the biggest fight I have isn’t with the devil’s mischief but with the unbelief people have concerning themselves. He doesn’t…he cannot operate without an in. From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden – he needed an in to get Eve and Adam to eat the fruit. He found it in the troubling doubt they had that God wasn’t really for them and they need to have their own backs.

I have power and authority to put demons in their place but I can’t make you believe what God has said about you, what He thinks of you, what He feels about you. That choice is squarely on your shoulders and no one else’s.

It’s not a one-time affair either. Just because my question changed, doesn’t mean the devil stopped trying to put me down. Every once in a while he’ll give it a shot. And when he does I go back to the truth that is my reality – nothing I say or do has qualified me to function in my call; therefore, my failures and shortcomings cannot disqualify me. What God has qualified, only He can disqualify. I can’t do it. Neither can the devil. Only God.

For as long as God calls me to run a race and points to my lane, I will stick to it faithfully knowing His Spirit is the very wind blowing all around me as I put one foot in front of the other.

Your voice matters to God.

So make the choice to live as one who He loves so dearly that He died to give you eternal life.

Because He did.