“What is it, Lord?” What am I holding back? What am I using as an excuse for not serving You in whatever You want me to do?”
And then, there by the canal, I finally had my answer. My “yes” to God had always been a “yes, but.” Yes, but I’m not educated. Yes, but I’m lame.
With the next breath, I did say “Yes.” I said it in a brand-new way, without qualification. “I’ll go, Lord,” I said, “no matter whether it’s through the route or ordination, or through the WEC program, or through working on at Ringers’. Whenever, wherever, however You want me, I’ll go. And I’ll begin this very minute. Lord, as I stand up from this place, and as I take my first step forward, will You consider that this is a step toward complete obedience to You? I’ll call it the Step of Yes.”
I stood up. I took a stride forward. And in that moment, there was a sharp wrench in the lame leg. I thought with horror that I had turned my crippled ankle. Gingerly I put the foot on the ground. I could stand on it all right. What on earth had happened? Slowly and very cautiously I began walking home, and as I walked, one verse of Scripture kept popping into my mind: “Going, they were healed.”
I couldn’t remember at first where it came from. Then I recalled the story of the ten lepers, and how on their way to see the priest as Christ had commanded, the miracle happened. “Going, they were healed.”
Could it be? Could it possibly be that I too had been healed?
I was due at a Sunday evening service in a village six kilometers away. Normally, I would have ridden my bicycle, but tonight was different. Tonight I was going to walk all the way to the meeting.
I did it too.
-God’s Smuggler // Written by: Brother Andrew with John and Elizabeth Sherrill // © 1967, 2001 by Brother Andrew and John and Elizabeth Sherrill // Published by Chosen Books, Grand Rapids, MI
Brother Andrew went on to be a missionary behind the Soviet Iron Curtain, risking his life for the sake of the Gospel. It all began that day when he finally let go of everything and completely submitted himself to God’s Will.
What is your crutch?
//Bring it World
-Brian Purkiss
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