Last entry I shared with you a little about some
struggles that I had been having in feeling like the Lord was far from me. I was feeling that I just could not get
it right. I could not figure out
the formula for how to believe with my whole heart that God was there and that
God loved me. You know what is
funny. The answer is that there is
no formula, and well we cannot actually get IT right at all! We need God in order to do that. So, I was feeling a little better after
calling out to God that night in the Church, but I still had a far way to
go. Little did I know that God was
just starting me on a new crazy adventure with Him.
I guess I have not really shared too much about
the different ministries we are involved with, or discussed too much about what
else we do here. But, one really
exciting connection we have is with the Hills Road Sixth Form College CU
(Christian Union). (For the
Americans reading this, a sixth form college is basically a rough equivalent to
the last two years of our high school.)
The CU at this college is really strong and growing, which is
amazing! Anyways, the leaders of
this group were having a leadership retreat that weekend and we were able to
partner with them and encourage them in what they are doing. (Five of us from the team went along
with Connie (our leader) and Jane (an amazing staff member)
I was blown away by the maturity that was
there! These students had it so
together and were so organized!
But more than that, they had a deep love for Jesus, and had a real
desire to get to know Him better.
In addition, they had a deep curiosity about how to get to know Him
better, and how to form that solid relationship with Him. As we were sharing testimonies
throughout the weekend, one of the students asked a question that really struck
me. He asked, “You all seem to
talk about talking to God, and hearing God. How is it that you do that?” Why did it strike me?
Well, that is a question that I feel like I always have. Just last night, I was calling out to
God saying, where the heck are you God?! And now today, (well actually this
happened two days later, but that’s besides the point) I am discussing with a
group of girls, different ways that we are able to hear God’s voice. We talked about how we are able to
interact with Him throughout daily life in addition to those times when we feel
like everything has gone wrong, and we do not even know how to have faith in
Him at times. I was able to share
with some of the girls a set of verses that really have gotten me through rough
times. 1 Peter 5:6-11
6 Humble yourselves,
therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on
him because he cares for you. 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy
the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm
in the faith, because you know that the family
of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal
glory in Christ, after you have suffered
a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and
steadfast.11 To him
be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Now, the beginning of this may not seem too overly uplifting, but
let me explain to you what this means to me. (Keep in mind that I am horrible at comprehending what
things are actually supposed to mean, but what matters is that this is what God
has encouraged me with, so therefore it works for me and can hopefully
encourage others if I share it.)
These few verses tell a story to me of God’s love for us. First we must humble ourselves under
His hand, meaning that we must come and turn to Him in all times and
circumstances. In this case to relate
to the rest of the verses, I must come to Him with my troubles and
difficulties. He wants us to turn
to Him rather than other things or people. He is there for us.
He is there anxiously waiting for us to turn to Him. He wants us to turn to Him, so that He
will be able to “lift us up in due time”.
He knows our lives better than we do. Therefore, He alone knows the perfect time to lift us out of
whatever it is we are going through.
We may feel like He is leaving us to suffer alone, or that He has
forgotten about us but He certainly did not. He is so excited to allow us to receive the best that we can
have in life, so He wants to wait until the perfect time so that we do not miss
out on His best for us.
He desires us to cast ALL of our anxieties on Him. He wants to take them. He does not like seeing us suffer from
anxiety or struggles. Do you know
why He does not like seeing us struggle?
BECAUSE HE LOVES US! He
cares for us so deeply! I do not
think it is even capable for us to even begin to understand His love for
us. Because He loves us, He gives
us a gentle, yet extremely important warning. He tells us to “be gentle and of sober mind”. He warns us about the enemy, the devil,
who “prowls around” looking to hurt us.
He, the devil, is looking to trap us and deceive us and take from us anything
that he can get his hands on. God
does not want us to fall into the devil’s traps. God wants us all to Himself! He does not like sharing us! So, we must be careful and on guard to watch for the deceit
of the enemy when he comes to try and convince us that our situation is worse
than it really is, and be on guard for when he tells us that there is no
hope.
God gives us advice to resist the devil and to stand firm in the
faith. We can do that because and
we can be encouraged that other believers are suffering or have suffered
similar things. Meaning, we are
not alone. This is not something
that is only there to make our lives terrible. Most importantly, there is nothing that we are going through
that Christ did not already go through.
Therefore, we must be patient in waiting on the Lord and His perfect
timing. Now to the best part of
the set of verses. “10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you
have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” God, who is the God who is full of
Grace, and who called us to be one of His own, after a little while will
HIMSELF restore us and make us strong, firm and steadfast!! Wow! Is that not amazing?! God HIMSELF will restore us! What other God is there that is so
personal that He works in EVERYONE’s life like that? He works in each one of our lives and hearts. He figures out the plans for EACH ONE
OF US! In order to plan out all of
our lives and to figure out the perfect timing and to figure out how to restore
us, imagine how much time He must spend thinking about each of us individually! Just think about how much time is spent
planning a simple event! Now times that by an insanely large number because it
is a person’s life we are talking about! Wow! That is all I have to say! God loves us!
So, yeah, I was able to share that with
some of the girls there during a reflection time. It is really neat/funny how God works and uses things that
we struggle with to help others.
As I was speaking to the girls, I was hearing myself speak out these
words of truth, and kind of laughed to myself. God, you sure do have a sense of humor. That weekend was definitely a
blessing. We were able to share with
the group of leaders our hearts for seeing other people personally know and
understand the Love of God. We
want others to experience, know, and believe that Christ died for them and
loves them dearly. Our leader
Connie shared with them all about the Cambridge Seven and about CT Studd, and
all about his passion for spreading the Gospel. It is really cool because they really were inspired to
follow in suit and start to spread the Gospel themselves. They were encouraged to bring all they
learned back to the rest of the CU, and to come join us on the streets during
some of our Evangelism times and talk to the people of Cambridge. In addition, they are joining us at one
of our House of Prayer nights, and leading the worship that night and taking
part in prayer with us. It was
just really encouraging to see the joy and excitement in their eyes. That weekend was amazing!
P.S. I encourage you to look up the
Cambridge Seven, and CT Studd.
Pretty cool stuff there!
Until Next time! God Bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment