January 24^th, 2018

1 Corinthians 1: 8-9

“He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

Right now, we are in the middle of a week that is draining on our bodies, more times then not I feel as though I want to just go lie down and sleep instead of pursuing God in the word. Last night I came to a point where I was crying out to God begging Him to show himself, telling Him how tired I was of searching and searching and me not seeing Him appear. I prayed “God I don’t even care at this point about seeing your hand but please just show me that you’re there, show me that I am not actually crazy. Remind me of my first love, remind me of how much you love me.” So, after praying all this I ended the prayer with “God at least just comfort me, help me to have peace.” After going to bed I woke up this morning and during my devotion this verse came up, I was already expecting not to hear anything life altering but what I was hit with changed the course of my day. God will be your source of strength and He is faithful to do what He says. You see at this point I was hoping for some answers to questions I had been praying about for a while. And when this verse came up and mentions that he is faithful to do what He says it reminded me of another verse where God encourages us to pray for things that are of Him and to seek him and we will find him. Well I had trying to seek him more than I normally do this week and He had yet to be revealed to me. When reading this I thought yes, it is true, He is faithful especially when we are faithless. I remembered a saying, God has three responses to requests; no, yes, and not yet. A lot of the prayers I have being praying relate to my future and I believe that most of them are not yet answers. He doesn’t think that this is the right time for me to know the answer. With that in mind I am set to pray the Lord’s will be done not my own.

January 10^th, 2018

2 Corinthians 4: 16-17

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”

              As January had hit I started to feel as if I was okay, yes, I had made it through the holidays without them being too hard. It was all okay and going to be fine, the next three months should be a breeze if Christmas wasn’t too hard. But immediately the feeling hit of not wanting to really be here because I was tired. My mind would often wander to what would I be doing if I was back home? But I would always have concluded no matter where or what I would be doing it wouldn’t be right.  I wouldn’t have been following God’s will for my life. So “that is why we never give up”, because we ought to follow the plan that God has for our life. We need to press forward and press on when our flesh says no. Our bodies really are dying and getting closer to the point of destruction even if our spirits are being renewed daily. Even if we are seeking God and depending on Him our bodies are still going to die, because our bodies are not in their perfected state that God intended for us.

For our fleshly desires right now won’t last, they are like the wind always changing. So, it is important to remember that those desires of things that aren’t of Him that won’t last. The troubles and worries that you may be facing will not last and are small in comparison in this life. But the trials prepare us for the future and shape us to be God fearing women that he intended for us to be. He is bringing us a heavenly glory that will outweigh everything we may be facing now.

Application:

Write down the fears and troubles you are facing right now with God and see the transformation of giving those to him.

January 5^th, 2018

Genesis 37-50

I know that this isn’t a verse, but it is what God has been teaching me over a period of time, it is about the life of Joseph. There is so much packed into this story. But one of the main themes that really stood out to me is that continuously seemingly bad things are happening to Joseph. Starting off with his brothers trading him into slavery then Potiphar’s wife accusing him of something he never did landing him into prison. At the time he would ask God why are you doing this to me? Is this really all you have for my life?

Right now, Ali and I are working a home for patients needing medical care that is supported by the church. We had been working with this boy named Sok Chea, he has a skin disease where he can’t produce enough skin and he becomes injured easily. Right now, though there are four other kids staying at the home which have touched our hearts so deeply. They are most likely going to end up going to an orphanage soon and there is nothing we can do to better their situation. I find myself asking God, “why is this allowed to happen? They are, after all, children. I do believe that you love children, so why is it that they got handed this life of no choice and pain? Is this just something that I am not seeing clearly? Am I just missing the point, the whole picture, like Joseph was? I know that God is good and yes, he does work all things together for your good. Yet even still I question, and I struggle with this fact. How so badly I want to see the whole picture not just the little slice I was given. Don’t their lives amount to more than just kids that heard the gospel through white people and then never saw them again? But then I think about Sok Chea and how because of his condition he and his parents have becoming followers and probably some of his other family members. So, wouldn’t it then be worth it? Would it be worth is for just the one? I am not God after all so who is to say that those kids won’t spread the gospel where ever it is that they may go.

Application:

Pray for those kids every day this week