{"id":1490,"date":"2011-05-11T08:12:06","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T08:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvmen.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/05\/i-am-small\/"},"modified":"2015-02-16T10:35:48","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:35:48","slug":"i-am-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/i-am-small\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am Small"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So the other day (Monday) before lunch, as we do every week, at my bible college we spent 15 mins praying for graduates of the college.<\/p>\n<p>Each one of us sitting around our various tables may pray for one or two people and read from information collected on sheets that are given around from folders. It is rather straightforward and very nice, although it can seem a bit of a chore at times, especially when you are pretty hungry. It is a good discipline really though and probably doesn&#8217;t need defending so I don&#8217;t know why I bothered to start defending it.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway!! This particular day I was praying for a guy called Paul and his wife (they seemed nice). And I just so happened to take notice that in his box labelled &#8220;Dates attended Moorlands&#8221; he&#8217;d marked the years as the early 80&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>Now this would have appeared relatively uninteresting to me on most days, but today however I was struck to the core by the realisation that this guy was here studying God&#8217;s word, preparing for ministry and getting ready to carry out God&#8217;s work &#8230; all before I was even born.<\/p>\n<p>This fact stole my mind for the rest of the prayer session, God reminded me that before I was even born, before I was even an idea conceived in my parents mind, God had been carrying out his will here on the earth. (A very obvious fact and one I should be acutely aware of having studied church history, the New Testament and all the accounts of the early church proclamation of the Gospel of Christ at bible college.)<\/p>\n<p>Yet at that particular moment this fact had a particular relevance and God spoke; He reminded me of just how insignificant I am in His grand plan. Now I doubt God was being nasty or arrogant, I just think at times we need to be humbled and reminded of a simple fact. Which is that in all of our stressing and straining about how to be a good witness and how to make sure our friends meet Christ and experience the Good News of his atoninig sacrifice that God is master and commander, he is in control, all His experience will never be totally reliant on our measly efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Before I was even born God was working on the salvation of the world. Why am I so worried about how I can contribute when I&#8217;ll probably just mess up his finely tuned method? But for some reason He entrusts us with the messenger role.<\/p>\n<p>So this week I have had a little nudge of encouragement from our Father to let me know that it&#8217;s under control and not to let my Christian, &#8220;weight of the world on my shoulders&#8221; ego get the better of me.<\/p>\n<p>5limboi<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/i-am-small\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So the other day (Monday) before lunch, as we do every week, at my bible college we spent 15 mins praying for graduates of the college. Each one of us sitting around our various tables may pray for one or two people and read from information collected on sheets that are given around from folders. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":5869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[74,87,90,192],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-o2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4079,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/the-welford\/the-first-man-pt-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1490,"position":0},"title":"The First Man &#8211; Pt 2","date":"1 May 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last time I wrote about Adam. The first man. The blueprint. The short term man who couldn\u2019t make a stand. But thankfully the story doesn\u2019t end with Adam, it\u2019s just the beginning. God\u2019s plan is for the whole of creation to be restored, to be redeemed. But for that to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Welford&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1585,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/dead-man-walking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1490,"position":1},"title":"Dead Man Walking","date":"13 July 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"He should have died at the scene. That was what they were saying. His first 24 hours after the car crash were to be his last. That was what everyone was preparing themselves for. So when he walked into the living room last week, smiling, I don\u2019t think any of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5846,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/all-for-one-and-one-for-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":1490,"position":2},"title":"All for one and one for all!","date":"12 February 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Our pastor resigned yesterday. He\u2019s off to be a chaplain at Wheaton College in Chicago. Wonderful opportunity for him of course, but he\u2019ll be greatly missed. When you\u2019re 50+ it appears to me that transitions seem to happen faster and faster; even more so in an expat community when some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8250,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/praying-like-my-life-depends-on-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":1490,"position":3},"title":"Praying Like My Life Depends On It!","date":"27 November 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I first committed my life to following Jesus Christ, the one thing I have found most difficult to do is PRAY! Particularly in the early days it just felt like I was doing nothing when I should have been doing something. I can remember the frustration of asking people,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/praying-e1570782283512.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9380,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/f1-in-defence-of-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1490,"position":4},"title":"F1 In defence of the gospel.","date":"15 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul wrote: \u201cI am put here for the defence of the gospel.\u201d Philippians 1:16 NIV The new formula one season has begun and I have been intrigued by a documentary series, \u2018Driving - to survive\u2019. A year-long intimate account of those involved in F1. The documentary,\u00a0among many other things, is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/f1-BLOG.jpg?fit=610%2C291&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":691,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/news\/lets-celebrate-fathers-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1490,"position":5},"title":"Let&#8217;s Celebrate Father&#8217;s Day","date":"19 May 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Let\u2019s celebrate Father\u2019s day in our churches, honouring those fathers who have shown us something of God\u2019s love, praying for fathers to be given strength in their crucial role and remembering that God, who is our Father in heaven, loves us more than we can grasp.\" - Rt Rev John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1490"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5887,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions\/5887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}