3 of the “All Things” God has Helped Me Do

by JoAnn Butler

I am a country girl but I lived 22 years in one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City … by choice!

I want to share with you just three things that God showed me about how much I could do with Him living on the inside of me. Now, that’s not as weird as it may first sound. Because when I said “Yes” to Jesus, His power worked (and still works) inside me to make me a new person. God is faithful to His word and I am living proof.

1)  This part of my story begins when I moved to Brooklyn, NY, back in the middle 80s. My walk with the Lord was only three years in the making. While in Brooklyn, I learned so much about myself and how to rely on His word.

I moved to Brooklyn to serve at a large ministry in the middle of Bedford Stuyvesant, a pretty tough neighborhood. I just wanted to serve wherever there was a need. In the beginning I answered phones and hand wrote receipts. After a few years, I was put in charge of the Food Pantry, which was stocked with donations from a food bank in the Bronx. A year and a half later I was transferred to the finance office where I was taught about bookkeeping.

To my amazement, in a few short years, I was put in charge of the Finance department and ran it for several years. Now this is what you need to understand: I only finished the ninth grade!

After Jesus came into my life, I got my GED and told Him that I would follow Him anywhere! After all, God said I could do ALL THINGS! “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

2) The main part of what I did in that ministry in Brooklyn was we called indoor Sunday School. That meant I needed to drive a bus! Laws have changed since then, but at that time I didn’t have to have a special license. So one of the men took me to an empty street to learn to drive the bus. After 35 minutes he said, “You are doing great, and you’re ready to drive your own bus Saturday.” I felt so good about this, and I thought I was ready.

Man, was I in for a rude awaking! The man who trained me to drive the bus never took me down any narrow one-way streets or past a double-parked car. What do you think happened that Saturday morning?

Barely a mile from the church, I was driving down a one-way street and there sat a double-parked car. I laid my head on the steering wheel and reminded God that He said I could do all things as I inched my huge bus past the cars and on down the street.

He did not fail me then, and He never has! And I’ve probably had to do that at least a thousand or more times during the years.

3)  When I moved to Brooklyn, it was just my son, Buddy, who was 12 at the time, and me. We had no family to help and no government assistance. My home church sent us $50 a week, and that is what we lived on for a year and a half!

I CAN DO ALL THINGS!

So as a country girl who had been an alcoholic and who did drugs, God showed me I could do all things through Him because of Philippians 4:13.

If you think you cannot do something, I am here to tell you, You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13