God Equips Willing Hearts 

Sometimes it happens when we least expect it, but God equips willing hearts if we ask.

Every five weeks I get my hair trimmed. Richard cuts it, and he does two things to make me glad I’ve come to him and not somebody else. Aside from the obvious necessary trim, he gives me a lift. It isn’t a lift of any physical magnitude but a spiritual one. The beauty parlor chair, wet hair, blowing dryers, and a cape are hardly conducive to an inspirational boost for my day. Nevertheless, it happens. Effortlessly and naturally. So how?

A while back (nearly five years ago!) I asked Richard how he managed to weave his faith into our small-talk. In his unassuming manner he responded with these words: “People come in, time after time. I cut their hair, talk my usual talk until one day that person comes in broken.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I continually pray for God to equip me for his purposes.” 

I’d written down that much on December 6, 2013, and I can still remember Richard saying something like this: “God equips me to serve when the time is right. I’m just available to be used by God—based on the time I’ve spent in prayer. If I’m empty when the right time comes I have nothing to give others.”  

Have you ever asked to be used by God? It wasn’t until my friend Richard and I talked about God’s grace that I knew I wanted to pray specifically for God’s equipping power in my life.

Does It Really Matter If God Equips Us Or Not?  

That conversation with Richard happened when I was still in business as an interior designer. When I began my career in 1984, I was equipped to provide beautiful surroundings. My vision was to use beauty as a vehicle to point others to Christ. I wanted my creativity and expertise to be used by God. It was sincere but perhaps a little abstract. Beauty blesses but it does not save people from eternal death. Only Christ’s mercy does that.

Richard had not set out to steam-roller his customers with a spiritual monologue. Rather, he had quietly prepared himself to be used by God to change lives when the time was right.  

Before my little chat with Richard, I might have wanted to beGod. Afterwards I prayed to be usedby God. 

I like what the Bible says on the subject: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

Corinthians 13:1-3