"I'm just not feelin' it"

I'm going to be brutally honest with myself and with you all today.  I went to church today, at a new church, not in the right frame of mind.  My heart wasn't prepared, my mind wasn't, and frankly, I arrived tired and just 'going through the motions'.  I don't say that because I am proud of it, but I'm sure we have all experienced those types of days if we're honest with ourselves.  I first want to start by saying, THANK GOD that He doesn't work based on how WE feel or how prepared (OR NOT PREPARED) we are.  He works in spite of us!

We visited a brand new church today, Hope Community Church.  As I said, I wasn't prepared to be in the house of the Lord, no matter where it was and I certainly didn't feel that I was representing Christ, I wasn't in a good place just coming off a wonderful weekend of being commissioned and consecrated as a long term missionary where leaders, friends and mentors laid hands on us to send us out for this amazing work God wants us to do.  I just wasn't in a good place.  The sermon this morning from Pastor Kevin Butcher shared a story of a lady who was kind of on the outs at his church.  He came to her one day and asked what was going on, why she sometimes came and sometimes didn't and her overall thoughts about church.  She stated simply, pastor, "I'm just not feelin' it".  He inquired more and it seemed she didn't understand how SHE could be used in any way in the church.  He encouraged her to be herself, to share her story, which was quite a story of overcoming, restoration and deliverance from addiction.  The next Sunday, she sat down by a lady who communicated to her that she was trying to decide if she was going to get clean from drugs and was thinking about rehab.  This lady, who 'just wasn't feelin it' was used in an amazing way to change a life!  BOTH were at church today and BOTH are clean from addiction and following Christ! 

The way this woman described her feeling about church, was exactly how I was feeling.  After being BLESSED by this story, the sermon and the sense of community today, I left feeling exuberant, ecstatic and THANKFUL that God meets us where we are and brings us out of whatever junk we are stuck in.  I sure wasn't feelin it this morning, but God touched me in a way that no one else could to meet me and bless me and REMIND me I am His.  I am called.  I am a child of HIS no matter where I am OR how I feel. 

Where are you today?  Allow God to meet you, allow Him to commune with you and remind you whose you are!