Occasionally, I need to be reminded that in my relationship with God, I am the clay, not the potter, the tree and not the gardener.

And often, that reminder will lead me in directions that are sure to make me uncomfortable.

Too many times, I think, we express a desire to for the Lord to use us to impact the world around us and reach people with the love of Jesus, but in doing so, we set certain confines outside which we are not willing to go.

Maybe it does not fit in your schedule. Maybe it does not line up with your “passions”. Maybe you do not have the resources to accomplish it.

Or maybe it is just a road you are a little too scared to go down because you do not feel qualified to do it.

However, if we wait until we have all the time, resources, or character traits we need to follow His leading, we are never going to bear much fruit.

Scripture is chock full of examples of this, and a couple that stick out are those of Moses and Gideon, two men who God handpicked to do mighty things for Him. In their early encounters with Him, they spent a lot of time telling God why they were not qualified to do the job.

God’s response, in a nutshell, was, “Just trust and go and I will equip you with what you need.”

And He did provide everything they needed, but only once they went.

When Abraham trusted the Lord and headed to the mountain in to sacrifice Isaac, the ram was not revealed until Abraham had demonstrated His faithfulness.

Showing His love is going to lead places we are uncomfortable with, and will ask us to love people we may not particularly like. But He asks us to do it anyway.

As Jesus tells the story of the faithful servant, the master says:

“‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’” (Luke 19:17, ESV).

To bear fruit first requires us to grow, which means the Lord is going to stretch our limits, not to demonstrate our strength, but to demonstrate His. But this only happens once we trust Him daily with what we already have and put it in His hands to mold it and make more from it than we ever could.

“For we are his workmanship,” Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, “Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

We do not know the bigger picture; the Lord does. Often, he only gives us enough light to take the next step in trust.

So what step is the Lord telling you to take today you do not feel equipped to take?

Take the step anyway, and let Him give you what you need to be who He created you to be.

Daniel Kiewel is a reporter with the Great Bend Tribune. He can be reached at dkiewel@gbtribune.com.