08162019 Isobel Kuhn

Dear Missionary Lady,

How wonderful that God is using you! We cannot take such a privilege for granted. Do we realize how few Christians  reach any exceptional level of usefulness? And do we realize how much God must intervene to prepare us for service? I recently read "By Searching: My Journey Through Doubt Into Faith" by Isobel Kuhn, and I loved the story of how God prepared her to serve Him.

Isobel ended up as a Canadian missionary to China and Thailand from 1928 to 1954. She was both a likely and unlikely candidate for missions. Her grandfather and father were pastors, and her mother led a ladies' missionary society. Isobel was deliberately trained to stand firm against the secular philosophies of university life. In spite of this background and training, she fell hard right away. A professor claimed that no one believed in God anymore, and anyone who claimed to was merely parroting what his parents had told him.

Isobel immediately decided she would not believe anything only on the word of others, and she rejected Christianity, although she couldn't quite bring herself to say God didn't exist. She lived a life of pleasure and entertainment, ignoring the spiritual influence of her family, and she continued in that mode for seven years.

Devastated when her learned her fiancé was unfaithful and intended to remain that way after marriage, Isobel briefly contemplated suicide. She was miserable and dissatisfied with life. She couldn't sleep and had a job she hated. In her aimlessness and despair, she finally called out for God to show her He was real.

God answered that prayer repeatedly over a period of years. Isobel's return to Christianity commenced immediately but was rather private and cautious. She gradually laid aside some of her worldly habits, and she progressively became more committed to God. For a long time her lifestyle and testimony lagged behind the progress and stirrings in her soul, until she was finally ready to fully and definitively commit to God with her whole heart.

Part of what amazed me about Isobel's story is the patience and persistence of God. He kept bringing the right people into her life. He kept putting opportunities in front of her. He kept answering her sometimes selfish and rather unspiritual prayers. Yes, Isobel was searching for God, but she was not easily convinced. She recognized ways in which God was working, but she was not quick to embrace Him. She wanted to see a consistent, long-term reality of God. And God was willing to do that. She had promised to follow Him if He would show Himself to be real, and God continued to do that even when she didn't really keep her promise for a long time.

Over the years, Isobel saw God do much for her. From an observer's perspective, God made it hard for her to get away from Him. He just kept doing things to show His interest in her and to keep pulling her more deeply to Himself.

Eventually, Isobel reached the place of being fully devoted to God and completely willing to do anything He asked. She recognized God's careful work in her life. She realized that her experience prepared her to minister specifically to others. She was willing to make sacrifices and hard choices to prepare for ministry. Through a false accusation that threatened her acceptance as a missionary candidate, she learned more about the deep spiritual needs she still had. She came to the conclusion that all the varied aspects of God's work in her life, including the very difficult things, were God's training. She saw that He was molding her.

Our stories may not match that of Isobel, but our God is the same. He has been so patient with us when we have sometimes been slow to take steps of growth. He has intervened to answer prayer and provide for us time after time, when we can quickly forget what He has done in the past. When God has seen us and has had a desire to use us for His service, He has set about to bring that goal to fruition. It has required way more work on His part than it ought to have taken. But patiently, day after day, and year after year, God has used a combination of blessings and trials to make us what we need to be.

He is still doing that work, because not one of us has yet reached the goal of consistent perfection. Every day we keep facing situations - challenges, heartaches, trials of all sorts - and it is so easy to forget that a patient God is molding us through them. His constant desire is to continue making us into fit vessels for His work, and He never gives up on us.

Oh, that we would learn to recognize and accept what God is doing! That we would compliantly place ourselves in His hands so that He can effectively do the work He wants to do. And may we thank Him for His choosing of us, for His patience in preparing us, for His goodness in placing us in His service.

"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" (Romans 9:20-21).  "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it" (Jeremiah 18:4).

Yes, Lord, make us as You would make us. Give us the form that You know is best, through the method that You know is required. Please never stop molding us. And help us not to squirm and protest.

Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com