ENABLED TO ENABLE

Who has God enabled you to enable?

I was writing my mother’s obituary when a Tuesday article found me.

I was trying to find the right words to describe my father and his place in my mother’s life when I wrote a simple sentence:

He was the one whom God enabled to enable her.

And then I stopped!

Because suddenly, I realised I wasn’t only writing about my parents anymore.

My father was ten years older than my mother. He had completed his education and had begun working while she was still in school. He could have asked her to abandon that journey and marry him. But he didn’t. He waited for her.

He chose to allow her to finish her education and graduate before they got married. And as God subsequently lifted and established my father, he in turn made room for my mother to rise too.

Neither of them could possibly have known all the lives that would be impacted because of those early decisions.

My mother went on to become a highly accomplished educator and a pillar to many. She educated, served, influenced, opened doors, solved problems, encouraged and strengthened people.

And suddenly I saw it:

Sometimes God blesses us so that we can help someone else to become what He has called them to be.

Perhaps we have thought of God’s enablement mainly in terms of ourselves.

When we pray we say:

God, please bless me.

God, please open a door for me.

God, please give me influence.

God, please increase me.

And God does.

But what if some of what God places in our hands is not meant to end with us?

What if He gives us influence because somebody needs our recommendation?

What if He gives us resources because somebody needs a helping hand?

What if He gives us a platform because somebody else needs somewhere to stand?

What if He gives us strength so that, for a season, we can say to another person:

“Go. I will hold things here.”

A husband who makes room for his wife’s gift.

A boss who sees something in a young employee and gives her an opportunity.

A teacher who refuses to give up on one child.

A friend who makes an introduction.

A parent who sacrifices so a child can go further.

These are all people whom God has enabled to enable others. The beautiful thing is that we may never know how far our enabling will travel.

My father could not possibly have known all the lives my mother would one day touch.

But God knew.

And so God enabled a man who enabled a woman who went on to enable many.

Look at that multiplication!  That enablement flows through to countless other lives.

Perhaps the blessing in your hand is not meant to end with you.

Perhaps that door God opened for you gives you the capacity to hold one open for somebody else.

Please do not close the door behind you. Someone else needs to walk through it.

I am reminded of this Scripture:

“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT

There it is again.

God comforts us — and we comfort others.

God strengthens us — and we strengthen others.

God opens doors for us — and we hold doors open for others.

God enables us — and we enable others.

So perhaps the question for us today is simply this:

Who has God enabled you to enable?

Let us look again at what He has placed in our hands.

Our knowledge. our access. our experience. our resources. our influence. our encouragement.

Someone’s destiny may be intertwined with ours, not merely because of what they will bring into our lives, but because of what God intends to do through them.

And for me, that is simply how grace travels.

WHEN GOD ENABLES YOU, DO NOT HESITATE TO ENABLE OTHERS.

 

OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©

The Place of Praise — planting God’s Word one heart at a time.💖