We Can Still Do The Impossible

Hey everyone! I have been in Southeast Asia for about 2 weeks now but it feels like much longer. It is so crazy how much God can do in just 2 weeks. His faithfulness and goodness just keeps pouring out on us. But of course it does. Why wouldn't it?

As I lay in my bed tonight writing this post and marveling at another beautiful day, I am reminded of how God likes to awe us with His mighty works. I have read so many stories in the Bible that just seem impossible and don't make much sense but I realize that this is the very nature of God.

I bet when God asked Joshua to march around the city of Jericho once each day for six days and seven times on the seventh day while 7 priests blew their horns, it didn't make much sense to him, but he had faith. I bet when Jesus told His disciples to pass out five loaves of bread and two fish to over five thousand people, they looked at Him like He was crazy, but they had faith. Noah spent 120 years building an ark and people told him everyday that he was crazy. Everyday for 120 years! He should have given up, but he had faith.

As I think about these stories I look at them as awesome examples of God's amazing power, faithfulness and love but still sometimes I don't really believe in my heart that this could still be possible. I think that maybe Joshua, the disciples, or Noah had something that I don't. But this isn't true. God is the same yesterday, today and always. And we are ALL created in His image and called to do things before our existence (Jeremiah 1:5). This means that all these impossible things could just as easily happen to us too! Radical stuff, extraordinary stuff, it still exists!

I want big things from God. We want big things from God but then we think it is strange when He asks us to march around a city until it falls down, to feed five thousand people or to build an ark. But we CAN ask God for big things. He wants us to ask and He wants to give it to us. He wants us to have unimaginable faith in His mighty works.

I know that I live a crazy life, and I know that some mornings when I wake up and think that an impossible task is before me, that God will come and meet me there. He will meet me with impossible strength and love. I serve the same God today that used Moses, a murderer, to part the Red Sea. A God who let Peter, who would deny Him, walk on water. A God who looks at me, in all my fallen weakness and says, "you can do the impossible."

It is mind blowing when I sit there and marvel at this truth. The God of the entire universe has chosen me to be a part of His great and mighty works. He actually doesn't need me at all. He can do it all by Himself but He wants me to do this journey with Him. He has given me destiny and purpose and calls me to reign in His truth that He will be with me wherever I go.

Fear The Things That Can Destroy Your Soul

I made it! I am finally at my destination...well almost. I still have a long bus ride ahead of me, but for the most part, I have made it. God is beyond good.

This morning I was reading through the book of Matthew and was meditating on Matthew 10:28 which says "not to fear things that can destroy the body but things that can destroy the soul."

I am in a country right now where nothing is familiar. Uncertainty is everywhere. I look into the eyes of the people and see brokenness and hopelessness. People often ask me if I think my life is dangerous or if I get afraid because everything around me is so different and uncertain. But I am much much more afraid of remaining comfortable. I am much more afraid of destroying my soul as it states in Matthew 10. As I stated in my last blog post, becoming comfortable was all too normal for me and now I am choosing to live in the midst of uncertainty and risk because I am running from the things that can destroy my soul: complacency, comfort, and ignorance. I am much more terrified of living a comfortable life and failing to follow Jesus than I am of any uncertainty or risk.

Jesus called His followers to be a lot of things, but I have yet to find where He warned us to be safe. I believe we were each created to change the world for someone, to serve someone, to love someone the way Christ first loved us, to spread His light, whether that be in a foreign land or in our own back yard. Some days it is painfully difficult, but the blessings far outweigh the hardships.

The Bible is full of general direction as to how our lives should look:

"You are to find me in the least of these." Matthew 25:33-40

"You are to leave your earthly possessions and come follow me." Luke 18:22

"You are to love and serve The Lord God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:30-31

"You are to go and make disciples of all nations." Matthew 28:19-20

This is life to the fullest. This is where true satisfaction and fulfillment comes from. When we choose to lay down our own desires and pick up God's desires for our lives it will be the most rewarding. We will all one day stand before the God of the universe and give an account for how we used our time, gifts, resources and the Gospel He has entrusted to us. When that day comes, we will not be standing there wishing we would have made more money, watched more television and acquired more stuff. Instead, we will wish we would have given more of our time to loving people, serving people and making disciples of all nations.

I want my life to reflect God. I want all that I do to be for the glory of my eternal King. Yes, most of the time it is so difficult and I am still learning every single days what true surrender and abandonment looks like. But I do know that this is what I want. I want to follow God with radical obedience and I know He will help me with every step, even when I stumble and fall.

God Will Reward Those Who Sincerely Seek Him

Hello to everyone who is reading this. Thank you for following my blog. I am pretty new to this but I wanted to start a blog so people could follow me easily on this next chapter of my life. I am pretty excited about it, actually I am beyond excited about it. I feel like this new year coming up is going to be a brand new fresh season for me. God is doing something huge in my heart and in my life.

Lately, God has been speaking to me a lot about having wholehearted devotion and obedience to Him and what that looks like for me in my own life. You see, I love being comfortable, way too much. So much so that it is completely drawing me away from my dependence on my loving Heavenly Father. When I am so comfortable in my everyday life and when I have each of my days planned out perfectly, it leaves no room for me to trust Jesus because I don't really need to. I already know everything that is going to happen. I know that I will have food to eat, enough money in my bank account, a warm bed, a hot shower, people who love me and care for me and good health. Everything is perfect.

Now while there is nothing wrong with all these lovely things, there is something wrong when I become so dependent on them that it draws me away from depending on my Savior. God  is taking me into a place where He is seriously asking me how much I crave those things over His full love and devotion. And to be honest, most of the time I would rather have all of those comforts and know exactly what is going to happen throughout each day. But Jesus is asking me, "What if I took all those things away from you? Would I be enough to sustain you? Would my love be enough for you?" Those are questions that I am seriously asking myself and where God is seriously challenging me in.

I want my life to reflect God in all faucets. I want my life to glorify Him. Every piece of it. I want to know Him fuller. I want to experience Him more. I want to delight in Jesus at all times whether that be good or bad, poor or rich. I want to abandon my whole life to Him like so many of my brothers and sisters around the world who risk their lives every single day to worship Him and all they have IS Him. I want to be a part of people who are risking it all for Him. I am so tired of living day to day and not seeking God with my whole heart because I know that I am safe and secure.

For the sake of more than a billion people today who have YET to even hear the Gospel, I want to risk it all. For the sake of my life, my family, and the people who surround me, I want to risk it all. I want Jesus' love alone to be enough in my life. I want His love to sustain me through everything, even if that means I am no longer comfortable. I need to depend on Him for everything and if I don't, I will get lost in all the 'stuff.' I will lose sight of my purpose.

In about a week, I am leaving for a country where the majority of the people have no idea that there is a Savior who loves them, who died for them and who has rescued them from the chains of this world. I can no longer be selfish in my own comforts. There are people out there that need to hear the truth and if I am too lazy to risk my whole life because I fear leaving behind things I am familiar with, then there is something wrong in my heart. This is truly what Jesus meant when He said “if any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

I don't want to waste my life on anything that isn't pleasing to my Father. I want to live in uncompromising, unconditional abandonment to a gracious, loving Savior who invites me to take radical risks and He promises me radical reward in the end. God never promised that it would be easy, but He did promise a life full of satisfaction and fulfillment to anyone who follows Him with their whole heart and devotion.

"And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him." Hebrews 11:6