“Nothing can happen through you which is not happening to you.”
— Lloyd J. Ogilvie

This really isn’t something that I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about. But it makes total sense.

If one of my goals is to make myself more open to God using me in the lives of others, then I need to realize and accept that along the way God is going to work in my own life. Put another way, in writing these periodic messages of encouragement to others, I myself am encouraged. Just this morning, in reading and thinking on this message the following verse came to mind:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5

Then, as I pondered those words I found these:

“The disciple is dependent on the inner presence and activity of Christ for the regeneration of his or her own life into one of faith and love. The disciple can only be effective in the regeneration of the lives of others when this is the expression and abundance of that life-giving presence of Christ in his or her own life.”
— Martin Ganeri

I know I underestimate how much God works within me when I seek the privilege of doing His work in the lives of others. At the same time I must first allow God to work in me before I can be of any use to Him. Then, if I truly allow God to happen to me, then He will most definitely happen THROUGH me. This must be my prayer:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
— Psalm 139:23-24