Relying on God Not Ourselves

Colossians 2:8 (NLT) says, “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.” I wonder how many blessings and ministries get derailed because we suffocate them with our own plans, our own regulations, our own traditions instead of just letting the Holy Spirit work and sitting back and recognizing what God has done?

When the Lord opened the doors of Grace Bible Academy and used me to help start it, many people don’t realize the groundwork that was laid years before. The Lord had put a desire in me and my wife to see Christian education in our town. We had our kids in a Christian school and we had a negative experience and there was nothing else available for families that desired a Christian education for their child. We prayed and prayed about it, but there was never a peace that we were to move. In 2017, that peace came, and I met with the church board of Grace Bible Church and they were supportive and the vision started. We started the school year with 4 children, we gained 1 in October and lost 1 in December and finished with 4 children our first year. Our plan was to grow by one grade each year until we had a full K-12 school. Between kindergarten and first grade our second year as of July 20th, we had five total students. The Lord called another teacher to our school who would serve as a co-op teacher and teach grades second through ninth in one room. At the same time, the Lord had been showing me to slash our tuition in half. I brought both things to the church board thinking I was going to get shot down and they were supportve. We started the school year weeks later with 21 students, finished with 28 and were shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic. The next August, we had 67 students, the following year, 105, last year around 180, and this year we expect over 200 and have graduated 4 students in total with an expected graduating class of over 10 next year. I remember someone who was starting a Christian school asked to meet with me to pick my brain and asked about our growth because it seemed so successful. All I could do is give glory to God. I’m no marketing genius, but I did stay in my office and pray 1 Corinthians 3:6 every day, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” I (Brandon) planted, Apollos (my staff) watered, but God gave the increase is how I saw it. It was never about me. It was about what God was able to do.

If I had been operating in my own strength and enrollment was low, I would’ve started a marketing campaign that cost a lot of money. I may have increased tuition versus cutting it in half. I may have spent a lot of time on social media or purchased billboards around town to get our name out. I would’ve done whatever I could possibly do in my flesh to make it successful, but I would’ve lost sight of what was important: This school was not a creation of Brandon Pence. This school was a creation of God and it was in His hands and it’s success was only dependent on Him. So many times, we try to regulate ministry and put restrictions where God doesn’t want restrictions placed. We do them in the name of what’s right: For security, for protection, for love but if it’s anything outside of what God wants, it can strangle and suffocate a ministry that was once thriving. It all amounts to our own pride and our desire to feel successful and putting another notch on our belt. But the Bible tells us that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5-6 and James 4:6-7). We have to remain humble and recognize that we can do nothing through our own strength (Matthew 19:26), but it is God who is able to do more than we think or ask (Ephesians 3:20) and we can accomplish anything through His strength (Philippians 4:13).

How do we avoid sucking the life out of ministries and diminshing God’s blessings with our own selfish desires? It’s not through rules or regulations, just like salvation itself is not of our works or our actions. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us salvation is not our works so that we would not boast or take credit for what God has done. It’s only through God’s grace so that He gets the glory. Going back to Colossians 2, this time in verse 7, it tells us, “Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” We have to remain rooted in Jesus Christ, attached to Him, growing through Him, and our faith will grow and we will overflow with thankfulness because we will recognize how God has blessed and impacted every area of our life and God gets the glory.