I am in the single digits now... and waiting has never been so hard. Knowing I am so close and yet still not there yet is enough to drive me crazy. I cannot believe this dream I have held in my heart for years now is about to become reality. It still hasn't fully hit that I am going. That I am actually doing this. That the time has come.. But closer I get the more real it gets. I have these feelings inside me that are in constant battle. I am so very excited for this adventure God is taking me on, but am so not excited to leave the place I have called home and the people I call family (which includes my friends and church family). Nevertheless...the time has come for me to put action to the faith I claim to have.
My bags are full...and I still have more to add ((praise God for sending Fox River a week after me!!!)) My heart is fuller, overflowing actually. My emotions are running wild. My excitement at a new peak. Yet at the same time fear is rearing its ugly head. Wondering if I can actually do this. Can I really leave my family, my church, my friends, most of my life behind? Do I have what it takes to lead these people? What if I can't? These things threaten to keep me up at night. They try their best to distract me from this joy in my heart for a passion long desired and finally coming to be. God has the victory in this...for the most part. The truth is that sometimes I let the fear take over. I give up and let my mind wander into the unknown of fears and doubts and worries. I let it disable me for a while until I remember ((or am snapped out of it by a slap in the face)) that I cannot live in fear. I cannot let the unknown disable me of what I do know. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has brought me to this time in my life and this exact moment to fulfill whatever it is He has planned for my summer. I know that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is within me. I no longer have to be enslaved to fear. Because I AM A CHILD OF GOD. I do not need to worry because God has brought me this far and He is not about to start failing now. He has been faithful to it and He will be faithful through it. He is so so good! Amen?!
Will you pray for me? That I can keep my eyes locked on the One who has been so faithful to me, that I would not let the unknown keep me up at night, that I stay humble and willing to do what God is asking of me today and everyday. For the people who will become my family in Nicaragua. Pray that I remember what I actually need and forget the things that will only be a distraction to me. Thank you for being part of my life and what God is doing in and through it!
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. If
I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but
have not love, I gain
nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Overwhelmed and Overflowing
These last few months I have spent working and raising the support I will need for my life over the summer. Not only support financially, but [more importantly] in prayer. As I set out to do this I sent out letters asking people to join me in this great call God has put on my heart. Sending them out believing that God would bring me all that I would need. Money wasn't something I had to worry about, I trusted He would provide because it has been so clear this is what He is asking of me. My trust in God was NOT misguided (obviously).
Along with finances I knew God would bring me a group of people who I fondly refer to as "My People", these people will be the ones that I can count on and turn to when I need prayer, when I need someone to tell what God has done, when I need someone to listen and hear where my heart is, and yes the people who would make it financially possible to do this. I knew with my whole self that God would bring these people to me, He had to...this is His plan after all. So I stepped out in faith and asked Him to show me "My People", I asked Him to bring them to me.
These last few months of God bringing these people to me have been some of the sweetest times of my life. I knew He would, I really did...but the way He has done it has left me speechless. The magnitude of His faithfulness in this has truly overwhelmed me. I have known and believed and trusted God for many many years, and over those years I have seen His faithfulness in my life on countless occasions so I didn't doubt Him, I really didn't! That being said.......I didn't expect Him to bring me all that He has and the ways He has. I wish I could find the right words to explain to you what I am feeling, I wish I could spend forever writing and sharing about how God is working.
That being said it is time to worship. It is always time to worship. He is so good and so worthy of all our praise and worship! There are no adequate words to bring Him all the honor and glory He deserves, but I will spend the rest of my days looking for more ways to worship Him! My heart is full of thankfulness because of all that He has done in these days. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him. "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Psalm 100:1-2.
I am about 20 days from leaving....ahhhhhhh! I am kind of freaking right now, in many ways! Is it too soon to start packing??? hahaha. As I go along on my journey I want to share all that God is doing in my life, the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, the exciting, the crazy, ect. This is the place I will come to do that. It is my hearts desire to share how God is working in my life and also in the lives of those who I will be doing ministry with. Will you pray with me in these last few weeks before I go? Pray that God will prepare my heart, that I would be able to do all the preparing I need to do, that He would be preparing the hearts of those I will get to come into contact with, that as I get closer and closer to the day I would not become overwhelmed by fear and anxiousness but that I would have a new fire and passion for the ministry God has entrusted me with. Most of all would you pray that allow God full control of my life and my words and my heart.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Along with finances I knew God would bring me a group of people who I fondly refer to as "My People", these people will be the ones that I can count on and turn to when I need prayer, when I need someone to tell what God has done, when I need someone to listen and hear where my heart is, and yes the people who would make it financially possible to do this. I knew with my whole self that God would bring these people to me, He had to...this is His plan after all. So I stepped out in faith and asked Him to show me "My People", I asked Him to bring them to me.
These last few months of God bringing these people to me have been some of the sweetest times of my life. I knew He would, I really did...but the way He has done it has left me speechless. The magnitude of His faithfulness in this has truly overwhelmed me. I have known and believed and trusted God for many many years, and over those years I have seen His faithfulness in my life on countless occasions so I didn't doubt Him, I really didn't! That being said.......I didn't expect Him to bring me all that He has and the ways He has. I wish I could find the right words to explain to you what I am feeling, I wish I could spend forever writing and sharing about how God is working.
That being said it is time to worship. It is always time to worship. He is so good and so worthy of all our praise and worship! There are no adequate words to bring Him all the honor and glory He deserves, but I will spend the rest of my days looking for more ways to worship Him! My heart is full of thankfulness because of all that He has done in these days. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him. "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Psalm 100:1-2.
I am about 20 days from leaving....ahhhhhhh! I am kind of freaking right now, in many ways! Is it too soon to start packing??? hahaha. As I go along on my journey I want to share all that God is doing in my life, the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, the exciting, the crazy, ect. This is the place I will come to do that. It is my hearts desire to share how God is working in my life and also in the lives of those who I will be doing ministry with. Will you pray with me in these last few weeks before I go? Pray that God will prepare my heart, that I would be able to do all the preparing I need to do, that He would be preparing the hearts of those I will get to come into contact with, that as I get closer and closer to the day I would not become overwhelmed by fear and anxiousness but that I would have a new fire and passion for the ministry God has entrusted me with. Most of all would you pray that allow God full control of my life and my words and my heart.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Relentless: Part 2
When I started taking the steps towards missions like He had called me, He showed me that I needed to go to New Tribes Bible Institute. The summer before I started at NTBI I went on my second trip to Nicaragua. It was there that God gave me a passion and love for the people that I cannot explain through words. This is when I really started to understand the call He had put on my life several years earlier. I think that I was finally ready to trust Him in this crazy plan He has for me. While I was there I saw God work around me, but I also felt Him moving through me and I think this is when I finally started believing He could use me.
The next year I graduated from Bible school and took what I hoped and prayed would be my last week long trip to Nicaragua. While I was there I became even more convinced that this place was where my heart belongs. I wish I could explain the feeling I have when I am there, I wish you could understand why I feel so strongly about this. All I can say is that I have no doubt in my mind that this is God. There is no better feeling in this world than knowing you are doing exactly what He is asking of you. I have found my sweet spot and I am aiming myself towards it.
This fall I took a Spanish class and started some crucial conversations that set the course of my life for the next year or so. I talked to my friend, Donna, and asked her what the real chances of me getting to spend more than just I week in Nicaragua were and what I could do for the mission there. She asked me to pray about where God would have me put my focus on while I was there. He showed me through lots of prayer that I should be working with the teens. In December I had another conversation with Donna and told her what God was telling me and we talked about how I could really do this and how much it would cost to do so. After that conversation I started planning my summer of 2016 working with teen girls. My goal while I am there is to reach out to the girls and get them excited about coming to church and knowing Christ. I am also hoping to get to spend some time at each of the churches that are planted through Familia Avance Nicaragua and get a better idea of how God will use me there in the future.
God is already
working out so much of this for me and I could tell you story upon story about
His provision in this season of my life. The truth is that I am not at all
equipped to do what God has called me to do. What gives me hope is this: when I look at the examples of
who God used in the Bible I would see a bunch of unworthy people, people who
most would say should never be the faces of Gods ministry but that is exactly
who He chose; the broken, the outcast, the defeated, the prostitute,
the murderer, the imperfect, ect. I am convinced that the
reason God chooses the people He does is so that His light could shine even
brighter in the darkness. Because if He chooses the "unqualified" there will be no question to who the glory belongs. There is a quote that I love that says "God doesn't call the qualified,
He qualifies the called" this reminds me that even though there might be
some obstacles (oh yes there are) and some things I need to learn
(hmm...like a whole new language?) God is going to give me what I need
to do what He is asking.
“But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9 This verse is not really saying that my weakness somehow gives God strength He didn’t have before, its saying that when I am weak God’s strength is shown more clearly because there is no way I could do it without Him! I guess what I am trying to say is that I may not look like the best person for this job, and that is probably true, but I know that with Christ all things are possible if I walk in obedience to Him. It is not me doing the work but Christ in me. I am just a willing vessel for Him to fill up and pour out on those in need of His love.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
“But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9 This verse is not really saying that my weakness somehow gives God strength He didn’t have before, its saying that when I am weak God’s strength is shown more clearly because there is no way I could do it without Him! I guess what I am trying to say is that I may not look like the best person for this job, and that is probably true, but I know that with Christ all things are possible if I walk in obedience to Him. It is not me doing the work but Christ in me. I am just a willing vessel for Him to fill up and pour out on those in need of His love.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Relentless: part 1
I have taken four short term mission trips to Nicaragua with my church, on my first trip in my sophomore year of high school is when God first called me to missions. At that point in my life I was not ready or willing to do this so I just ignored it for a long time. When I sit and think back on those years in my life I can see how God was still pursuing me even as I ignored Him. I can see how He has shaped my life and used different things to bring me to a point that I could say "yes" to Him. Because of my stubbornness I ignored what He had put on my heart for many years, until I just couldn't.
I was in my senior year when I decided to let go of my pride and submit to God's will for my life. As most do at that age, I was trying to decide where I would go and what I would do with the next years of my life. As I searched and searched I came up empty because the places I was looking were not the right ones. I knew deep down inside me what I was supposed to do, but I just didn't want that for my life. Within just a few weeks God orchestrated things in my life that made it clear to me that I could not afford to ignore Him any longer. Through a documentary He showed me that this great love of His was not something to hold on to. I had to share it and it could cost everything. God asked me to become okay with the fact that as I followed Him I would have to lay everything I loved in His hands and trust Him with it. And that took me a long time. Honestly it is a daily battle, sometimes hourly.
There were so many things God used to reveal to me that missions was the only thing for me. After probably about four months of Him showing me around every turn, I asked my mentor if we could pray for one more sign. I mean I had been given countless, but I wanted to be extremely sure of this before I really gave in. About ten minutes after we prayed and asked for another sign God showed up twice to tell me this is in fact Him and this is His will. I decided that if He wasn't going to let it go then I was going to have to do it. You are probably thinking this is not the best attitude to have, and you would be completely correct. I didn't want to, but I was submitting to God's will for my life. If we are all honest with ourselves I think we could say that there are things like this in all of our lives. Things that we didn't necessarily want to do, but we laid down our pride and let God lead our lives.
You see, I have lived like Jonah: running away from what I knew God was asking of me. I have lived like Abraham: following God, trusting and obeying His will. There is something though that each of these men have in common, God used them. Yeah it took Jonah being swallowed by a fish for him to realize his stupidity, but then he did and God used him. And let me tell you there is nothing that brings more peace, hope, joy, growth, and love than living and doing what God asks of me. It might be scary, and seemingly make no sense to me at all, but it is the sweetest place to be.
God has done so many crucial things in my life to bring me to where I am today. Because He has done so much in such a small time I will be posting multiple blogs sharing smaller pieces at a time. God's faithfulness is streaked through my entire life and so much in these last few years pertaining to my near future. I hope you enjoy worshiping God with me as I share my story of Him with you. There is nothing I want more than to glorify God in this so please give it all to Him!
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
I was in my senior year when I decided to let go of my pride and submit to God's will for my life. As most do at that age, I was trying to decide where I would go and what I would do with the next years of my life. As I searched and searched I came up empty because the places I was looking were not the right ones. I knew deep down inside me what I was supposed to do, but I just didn't want that for my life. Within just a few weeks God orchestrated things in my life that made it clear to me that I could not afford to ignore Him any longer. Through a documentary He showed me that this great love of His was not something to hold on to. I had to share it and it could cost everything. God asked me to become okay with the fact that as I followed Him I would have to lay everything I loved in His hands and trust Him with it. And that took me a long time. Honestly it is a daily battle, sometimes hourly.
There were so many things God used to reveal to me that missions was the only thing for me. After probably about four months of Him showing me around every turn, I asked my mentor if we could pray for one more sign. I mean I had been given countless, but I wanted to be extremely sure of this before I really gave in. About ten minutes after we prayed and asked for another sign God showed up twice to tell me this is in fact Him and this is His will. I decided that if He wasn't going to let it go then I was going to have to do it. You are probably thinking this is not the best attitude to have, and you would be completely correct. I didn't want to, but I was submitting to God's will for my life. If we are all honest with ourselves I think we could say that there are things like this in all of our lives. Things that we didn't necessarily want to do, but we laid down our pride and let God lead our lives.
You see, I have lived like Jonah: running away from what I knew God was asking of me. I have lived like Abraham: following God, trusting and obeying His will. There is something though that each of these men have in common, God used them. Yeah it took Jonah being swallowed by a fish for him to realize his stupidity, but then he did and God used him. And let me tell you there is nothing that brings more peace, hope, joy, growth, and love than living and doing what God asks of me. It might be scary, and seemingly make no sense to me at all, but it is the sweetest place to be.
God has done so many crucial things in my life to bring me to where I am today. Because He has done so much in such a small time I will be posting multiple blogs sharing smaller pieces at a time. God's faithfulness is streaked through my entire life and so much in these last few years pertaining to my near future. I hope you enjoy worshiping God with me as I share my story of Him with you. There is nothing I want more than to glorify God in this so please give it all to Him!
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
My Pursuit
Let me share with you why I chose to name my blog "Pursuing 13". I am pursuing a life that is characterized by one thing. Something that everyone in the world is searching for whether they know it or not. Many people are looking for it in the people they are around, their boyfriend or girlfriend, their spouse, their friends, their family. But they come up short every time so they look to what else the world has to offer hoping that maybe it will fulfill them. Some work harder and harder every day thinking that if they can just reach the "American dream" with a 401k and a fancy car that they will be happy. People go to things like food and alcohol thinking that maybe they can find happiness in that, yet they just become addicted and even more unhappy. The thing is the world cannot give them what they are looking for because what they are longing for is not of the world.
What people are looking for is love, true love. A love that is so full of grace and mercy that it chose to die for us. A love that is so powerful that it overcame sin and death! A love that wants to know us and have a relationship with us. This love cannot be given by any people or things in our lives. It is a love that only God can give us. His love is so perfect and so full and so rich that it chooses to accept us in our sin. God is this love, and He gives Himself to any and all who ask Him! This love is what I want my life to be defined by!
For many many years the passage 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 has been one of my very favorites, it is a chapter in the Bible that is extremely well known even if people don't even realize where it is from.
Most people think of 1 Corinthians 13 as the "love" chapter of the Bible, but I think of it as the "life" chapter. It is pasted on countless walls, and used in most weddings (my friend just got married the other day and they mentioned this verse) . You see verses 4-7 everywhere and some people don't even realize it is from the Bible. But to me this verse is so much more. It is what drives me to be who I am. It is the reason I accepted Gods call to be a missionary. This chapter explains a little bit of who God is; He is patient and kind, He is gentle and not easily angered, He is not arrogant or rude or resentful, but He rejoices is truth! God bears, believes, hopes and endures all things! His love NEVER fails, it NEVER ends because His love is eternal! All other things in this life will pass away but Gods love will go on forever. As a Christian I am called to love like God loves. I am imperfect and do not love like this all the time but I do strive for this each day and honestly it isn't me when I do love like this; it is God loving through me and I am just His vessel.
I know that the Message version is frowned on a lot...but I love the way it says 1 Corinthians 13 1-3
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love."
If I do not love I am nothing. That means that even if I am doing all these things in the church and saying they are for God the effect is no good if I am not giving love. I have done this so many times in my life and it is just exhausting. But when I finally listen to what God is telling me and I do them in love it is like this new energy is given to me. Because when I am doing them without love I am doing it all on my own, but when I finally choose to do it out of love it is no longer me. When I choose love it cannot be me, it is God and it is His love. I don't know why I ever try to do things on my own anyway, it is just silly. That is why I love the first three verses of this chapter! They remind me that love is what I am here to do and give. It gives me purpose to do life and to do it out of a place of genuine care for the world. My life is defined by the love that was poured out on me by God, so why wouldn't I share that in everything I do?! I enjoy so much to do things in God's love because that means I get to say to people that He is the reason and give Him all the credit! I would not be where I am without this great love of His. I wouldn't be who I am without His all consuming love.
So you ask me, "Why not just say 'Pursuing Love'?" Honestly it is because when most people see the word love they automatically think that I am looking for a man (and because I want to be hipster hahaha)...which I guess you could say I am ;) just not the kind of man most people would think of. I am in pursuit of a man who will give His love through me, the only man greater than all the troubles of this world, Jesus Christ. This is the passion God has put in my heart, to love people with His love. I want to live my whole life pursuing new ways to do this, that is why I will be spending my summer in Nicaragua. God has given me this extremely exciting (and scary) opportunity to love the people of Nicaragua and I am following Him there! He is already making the way and I just have to obey and say "yes" to what He is asking of me. While I am preparing and going I will be writing about how God is paving the way for me and how He is working while I am there.
What are you doing to pursue the love of Christ in your life?
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
1 Corithians 13:1-3
Praying that love is greater in your life each day!
What people are looking for is love, true love. A love that is so full of grace and mercy that it chose to die for us. A love that is so powerful that it overcame sin and death! A love that wants to know us and have a relationship with us. This love cannot be given by any people or things in our lives. It is a love that only God can give us. His love is so perfect and so full and so rich that it chooses to accept us in our sin. God is this love, and He gives Himself to any and all who ask Him! This love is what I want my life to be defined by!
For many many years the passage 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 has been one of my very favorites, it is a chapter in the Bible that is extremely well known even if people don't even realize where it is from.
Most people think of 1 Corinthians 13 as the "love" chapter of the Bible, but I think of it as the "life" chapter. It is pasted on countless walls, and used in most weddings (my friend just got married the other day and they mentioned this verse) . You see verses 4-7 everywhere and some people don't even realize it is from the Bible. But to me this verse is so much more. It is what drives me to be who I am. It is the reason I accepted Gods call to be a missionary. This chapter explains a little bit of who God is; He is patient and kind, He is gentle and not easily angered, He is not arrogant or rude or resentful, but He rejoices is truth! God bears, believes, hopes and endures all things! His love NEVER fails, it NEVER ends because His love is eternal! All other things in this life will pass away but Gods love will go on forever. As a Christian I am called to love like God loves. I am imperfect and do not love like this all the time but I do strive for this each day and honestly it isn't me when I do love like this; it is God loving through me and I am just His vessel.
I know that the Message version is frowned on a lot...but I love the way it says 1 Corinthians 13 1-3
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love."
If I do not love I am nothing. That means that even if I am doing all these things in the church and saying they are for God the effect is no good if I am not giving love. I have done this so many times in my life and it is just exhausting. But when I finally listen to what God is telling me and I do them in love it is like this new energy is given to me. Because when I am doing them without love I am doing it all on my own, but when I finally choose to do it out of love it is no longer me. When I choose love it cannot be me, it is God and it is His love. I don't know why I ever try to do things on my own anyway, it is just silly. That is why I love the first three verses of this chapter! They remind me that love is what I am here to do and give. It gives me purpose to do life and to do it out of a place of genuine care for the world. My life is defined by the love that was poured out on me by God, so why wouldn't I share that in everything I do?! I enjoy so much to do things in God's love because that means I get to say to people that He is the reason and give Him all the credit! I would not be where I am without this great love of His. I wouldn't be who I am without His all consuming love.
So you ask me, "Why not just say 'Pursuing Love'?" Honestly it is because when most people see the word love they automatically think that I am looking for a man (and because I want to be hipster hahaha)...which I guess you could say I am ;) just not the kind of man most people would think of. I am in pursuit of a man who will give His love through me, the only man greater than all the troubles of this world, Jesus Christ. This is the passion God has put in my heart, to love people with His love. I want to live my whole life pursuing new ways to do this, that is why I will be spending my summer in Nicaragua. God has given me this extremely exciting (and scary) opportunity to love the people of Nicaragua and I am following Him there! He is already making the way and I just have to obey and say "yes" to what He is asking of me. While I am preparing and going I will be writing about how God is paving the way for me and how He is working while I am there.
What are you doing to pursue the love of Christ in your life?
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
1 Corithians 13:1-3
Praying that love is greater in your life each day!
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Asking God for His heart
Why do we think that when we ask God to give us His eyes for the world, to give us His heart for the world, to move in our lives, to change our hearts we think He won't do it? Then when He does we are so surprised. Have you ever really prayed any of those things and expected God to actually do it? Maybe you have never thought to pray for it or maybe when you have you did it because it sounded nice at the time. But have you ever expected Him to come through on it? What if you meant it when you asked for His heart for the world? Do you believe God would give it to you?
I have prayed some of these things many times and some of the I definitely did not want God to come through on it. This week I asked God to show me His heart, and I really wanted Him to and I believed He would...but I was not expecting or prepared for what comes with His heart. You know the phrase "be careful what you wish for"? I have experienced a whole new meaning to it. When God shows you His heart you see the world differently. You love the world differently. You love people differently. He shows you the brokenness and it breaks your heart as it does His. I am so thankful that God showed me a piece of His heart this week, and that is just it...all He has shown me is a piece of it, meaning there is an infinite amount more that I cannot even fathom to see, and I am a brokenhearted mess. This world needs love, it needs people who will let Christ be the love in their life and touch those who are longing for something that they don't even know the need, something they don't even know exists. And the thing is that it's not only the world that we perceive as "poverty" or "third world" that needs this love. It's your neighbor right next door, your coworker, your classmate, your mom, your dad, your brother and sister, your child, your best friend...the list goes on. People need love, but not a love that is conditioned on what they do or if they love you back. A love that is full of grace and peace and mercy. A love that is deep and rich and sweet. A love that surpasses any and all understanding because it is so infinite that words cannot explain it and if there were words that could explain it they wouldn't make sense because a love like this seems impossible. This kind of love is not something we have on our own, but with Christ we have this love and we can love with this love. We can be this love. Christ is this love and if you have Him you have His love within you. Why are you withholding it? You could be the reason someone experiences what true love looks like. Love conquers all.
The thing is that love is not free. Love costs EVERYTHING. Are you willing to give up everything for love? God has shown me what it takes to love the way He does and it is not easy. He asks that we love with everything we have, with everything that we are, to give of ourselves as He have of Himself. Love is sacrifice. Christ showed us what ultimate, reckless, unfathomable, grace filled love looks like when He chose to take our punishment on the cross; bearing our sins, our shame, our guilt, our pain, and rising victoriously over it. God probably won't ask you to do what Jesus did in that respect, but I can guarantee you He will ask you to do things that most would say are crazy, reckless, and impractical for love. This world needs people who are willing to say "yes" when God asks them to do something uncomfortable to show His love. I am asking myself right now, am I willing to love like this? It is scary to think about it, but God has not given a spirit of fear but one of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). Maybe God has already called you to love in big ways and you have, maybe He is now and you have to decide whether or not you are going to say "yes", and maybe He hasn't yet but is preparing you for when He will. Maybe all God is asking you to do right now is invite someone to eat with you, or to say hello, or to invite them to church or to just be a friend. Whatever it is He is asking of you remember that you don't go alone. He is there with you helping you through and loving them for you. I think that if we all took this challenge to love without fear this world could be a drastically different place. Love Costs Everything; in it holds the power to change the world.
Take the risk. It will be so worth it!
I have prayed some of these things many times and some of the I definitely did not want God to come through on it. This week I asked God to show me His heart, and I really wanted Him to and I believed He would...but I was not expecting or prepared for what comes with His heart. You know the phrase "be careful what you wish for"? I have experienced a whole new meaning to it. When God shows you His heart you see the world differently. You love the world differently. You love people differently. He shows you the brokenness and it breaks your heart as it does His. I am so thankful that God showed me a piece of His heart this week, and that is just it...all He has shown me is a piece of it, meaning there is an infinite amount more that I cannot even fathom to see, and I am a brokenhearted mess. This world needs love, it needs people who will let Christ be the love in their life and touch those who are longing for something that they don't even know the need, something they don't even know exists. And the thing is that it's not only the world that we perceive as "poverty" or "third world" that needs this love. It's your neighbor right next door, your coworker, your classmate, your mom, your dad, your brother and sister, your child, your best friend...the list goes on. People need love, but not a love that is conditioned on what they do or if they love you back. A love that is full of grace and peace and mercy. A love that is deep and rich and sweet. A love that surpasses any and all understanding because it is so infinite that words cannot explain it and if there were words that could explain it they wouldn't make sense because a love like this seems impossible. This kind of love is not something we have on our own, but with Christ we have this love and we can love with this love. We can be this love. Christ is this love and if you have Him you have His love within you. Why are you withholding it? You could be the reason someone experiences what true love looks like. Love conquers all.
The thing is that love is not free. Love costs EVERYTHING. Are you willing to give up everything for love? God has shown me what it takes to love the way He does and it is not easy. He asks that we love with everything we have, with everything that we are, to give of ourselves as He have of Himself. Love is sacrifice. Christ showed us what ultimate, reckless, unfathomable, grace filled love looks like when He chose to take our punishment on the cross; bearing our sins, our shame, our guilt, our pain, and rising victoriously over it. God probably won't ask you to do what Jesus did in that respect, but I can guarantee you He will ask you to do things that most would say are crazy, reckless, and impractical for love. This world needs people who are willing to say "yes" when God asks them to do something uncomfortable to show His love. I am asking myself right now, am I willing to love like this? It is scary to think about it, but God has not given a spirit of fear but one of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). Maybe God has already called you to love in big ways and you have, maybe He is now and you have to decide whether or not you are going to say "yes", and maybe He hasn't yet but is preparing you for when He will. Maybe all God is asking you to do right now is invite someone to eat with you, or to say hello, or to invite them to church or to just be a friend. Whatever it is He is asking of you remember that you don't go alone. He is there with you helping you through and loving them for you. I think that if we all took this challenge to love without fear this world could be a drastically different place. Love Costs Everything; in it holds the power to change the world.
Take the risk. It will be so worth it!
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