The Great Adventure

When I was a teen, one of my favorite Christian songs was "The Great Adventure" by Steven Curtis Chapman. (listen here) It was not until more recently I really paid attention to the lyrics. The second part of the first verse goes like this:

"I opened up the Bible and I read about you and me
Said we'd all been prisoners and God's grace had set us all free
Somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!"

I feel like this year has been the start of my own great adventure. I wrote in my planner at the beginning of the year the word fervent. It was in my heart to pursue righteousness more than I have before and the scripture in James 5:16 seemed to burn in my heart. 
I will be the very first to tell you most days I do not "feel" righteous. I get frustrated. I feel like I should pray more or study scripture more. I frequently feel like the word righteous is too grand a word to attribute to myself, but if God calls us righteous through Jesus, who am I to argue? 2018 has opened my spiritual eyes to so many truths, this is just the beginning...the start of the great adventure.

More Faith

If you read my older blogs you will read a woman looking for more faith. This year my faith has grown exponentially. Not because God sprinkled faith dust on me, I started acting on the faith I already had. Funding the trip to Cambodia was an act of faith. Enrolling in ministry school was an act of faith. Sharing my faith with others, required faith that God would help me. My new job situation, my children, and so many other things I could list have required me to act in faith. 

Faith without works is dead. We read this and hear this all the time. What we do not realize is our faith is confessed with our mouths more than any other method. In Cambodia, I prayed for a man to be healed of terrible, 3rd degree burns. I have to admit that I was disappointed when the wounds did not disappear. There was relief according to the man, but I saw little change. I believe he is healed, but I did not recognize that God has an order even in miracles. Jesus first miracle had to do with beverages. It was not healing the blind or raising the dead...he handled the drinks at the wedding. It is the first recorded miracle of Christ. Then you look at the boy the disciples could not heal. When they asked Jesus why they could not heal him, Jesus said it was their unbelief and he goes on to say that a particular demon only comes out through prayer and fasting. 

Provision

Cambodia was instrumental in connecting to my faith and beginning to recognize my calling. Once we returned from Cambodia, my job felt unbearable. I interviewed for an "ideal" job prior to going to Cambodia. It was a position with better pay, benefits and all the things that are on your normal checklist for promotion. Then I heard about a position with a Teen Challenge. the idea of the job excited me, but I knew the pay would not be like what I was making. I prayed and I interviewed. I started with Teen Challenge in November. 

This was yet another exercise in faith. We sometimes get the idea in our heads that the disciples were kind of bumming around when Jesus called them. Read your Gospels again. They were commercial fisherman for the time, not guys who happened to be fishing. Tax collectors were some of the wealthiest people at the time. These men walked about from lucrative positions. Positions with a measure of security. When the rich young man speaks to Jesus, Jesus challenges to sell all he has, give it to the poor, and follow him. The young ruler leaves sad because he does not want to part with his things, his money...his security.

God did not tell me to sell my house and all my other possessions, but I feel this is a lesson. Trust in the Lord. That does not mean God is delivering a winning lotto ticket to my door. It means He will provide. He will bless the work of my hands. With that message in my heart, my husband and I started with Financial Peace University and started looking for little side jobs we could do. God is faithful and doors have opened.

Pride

Another area that God has checked me on is pride. I do not think most people would consider me prideful, but when it comes to school performance...I can get rather prideful. Intelligence and knowledge have been the areas I poured myself into because I felt insecure in so many other capacities. I had excellent grades in college and through all my professional training. 
Our final exam in our first ministry school class was actually pretty tough. I will admit I underestimated how hard the test would be. We reviewed everything, but trying to recall the information for a primarily fill in the blank test was taxing. I passed the exam with a grade that shamed me. Once I learned my grade my entire attitude shifted in class. I was quiet, not very engaged and when I got home I cried over a test grade. My first instinct was to retake the test, along with a few of my classmates. I kept feeling this urge to accept the grade. It pushed against everything in my nature. I needed a "A" at minimum. I am an "A" student. The urging continued...accept the grade. I knew the material, why should I accept the grade? Then it hit me. Pride. I needed to be humble. After all, ministry school is more about my spirit than my intellect. The more I have accepted that idea, the better my grades have looked as well.

Big Frontier In Front of Me

I don't know what is in store and for once in my life...I am completely okay with that. There is a peace and assurance in my life that I have never known before. It is not an absence of storms, we have storms around us, but what can they do to me? God protects me, my God fights for me...I have nothing to fear.

I take it all one day at a time and simply say, "Lord, your servant is here and I am listening." So as 2018 ends and 2019 begins...saddle up, there is a trail to blaze.




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