The month of September was one heck of a whirlwind. My entire squad was gathered together and serving the Lord in Dragonesti, Romania and we all lived under one roof. Coming into September I heard the Lord tell me to press into the words sacrificial love this month. At first I wasn’t sure what that looked like but I quickly found out that there are a lot of things that I had to sacrifice while living in a house of 44 people. I had to sacrifice a steady night sleep, lots of space for quiet time, the convenience of showers, toilets, cooking utilities and much more. We had to live in community and I must say we did it peacefully and for the most part efficiently. The meaning of sacrifice is the act of giving up something that you want to keep. The word love means many different things to many different people, but in 1 John 4:16 John writes, “God is Love, and all who live in love live in God.” So as I thought about these words I pictured Jesus on the cross and Him giving up his life for me and for you. I picture God letting go of His son for me. Jesus being the ultimate sacrifice that covered all sin. The love that Jesus has for me is perfect and cast out all fear because He gave up something for me. As I press into sacrificial love I come to the realization that I cannot master it in one month, 11 months, 3 years or even in a life time but what I can master is knowing that there will always be more room to grow. I can choose to get better and better at it everyday like last month this month, the rest of the race, and the rest of my life.
The ways my team and I pressed into it last month was taking the time to wash every persons feet on our squad. There was something so special about praying for a child of God I did or didn’t know all that well, kneeling before them, washing their feet, encourage them in the way God made them, and then pray for them. At the end of the day giving up extra time to pray for someone and wash their feet by far blessed me more then it probably bless them because I got to spend time seeing the Fathers heart for His children.
This morning here in Povdiv, Bulgaria I was reading Exodus 23 and lets just say the Lord isn’t done teaching me about this yet. Exodus 23:19 says “As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the Lord your God.” This stood out to me because God is talking about our offerings and how we should bring our first and very best sacrifices to the table. Its not just giving something up its giving up the most valuable thing. Why wouldn’t I sacrifice the best of the best I have for a God that loves me far more then I will ever understand, for the God who sent His only son so I can be set free, and for Jesus who gave up His place at the right hand of God to come down to earth and die on a cross, take on sin its self just so I would be made new and spend eternity with Him. He now sits at the right hand of God as the High Priest so I can come boldly into the throne of a merciful, gracious God (Hebrews 4:14-16). So the days I am frustrated, missing my loved ones back home, struggling to understand even the most basic conversations as a foreigner, I will fix my eyes on things above (Colossians 3:1-4) because He is worthy of it all. He is worth giving up a year of comfort, regularity, convenience and more! He is worth a whole life of sacrifices to show how much I love Him but more importantly to show how much He first loved me.
P.S. Bulgaria is awesome! My team and I are working with American missionaries who have lived here for ten years. We are helping them teach English to all ages, move to a new apartment and putting on vents that reach out to the community so they can build relationships with more people to make Kingdom steps here in Bulgaria.
