“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
This morning as I was thinking about what I wanted to blog about these simple lyrics I learned sitting in Mrs. Kinkaid’s first grade Sunday School class came back to me. Each Sunday we would sit in our circle and sing this simple songs, and at the time it was just another song.
But as I sit here and think about the last 7 months I realize just how true that simple song is. If I would have truly grasped this concept in first grade my entire life would have been different. The overarching theme of my Race so far has been trusting God.
Trusting that he is good, that he loves me, that I am enough for him, that he has good plans for me, and mostly that I am who he says I am. It has been hard, and I have let go of a lot of lies that I believed for far too long. However God has been so faithful to show up in those moments and remind me again and again of his character.
Lately though God has been teaching me something else. Obedience.
At the end of Zambia, God asked me to walk away from some things (full disclaimer, it was a guy….whatever) that I really didn’t want to. I wanted to walk by the flesh and ignore the crystal clear instructions God was laying out before me. However I did it, a bit reluctantly but I still did it.
At the time I thought I knew why God was asking me to walk away, and while that was true there was so much more in store that I never would have dreamed about.
Our ministry last month consisted of walking into schools and teaching in Bible clubs called Scripture Union. We had lesson plans the organization wanted us to teach from and our team got really good at lesson three- choosing God. We would talk about in Joshua 24:14-18 when he tells the Israelites to choose who they are going to serve.
Mostly my team went into high schools. We got to share our stories with them, about how we had made choices in our past to put other things first. To serve the gods of popularity, money, or family instead of choosing to serve the one true God.
It was in one of these classrooms, surrounded by teenage Zimbabweans that God said “tell them about the guy” and I said, “No! No! No!”
His response was a simple “Choose Me right now Aud.”
So with sweaty hands and a racing heart I shared with this room full of strangers the hard things God was asking me to choose him in at that very moment. It was so cool to see this room full of teenagers start to open up to us.
They saw that I was willing to be real with them so they decided to be real with us. They asked us questions about the struggles they were walking in, and in return we were able to encourage them that walking with God is always worth it.
By walking in obedience throughout the month, I was able to see how God used it to not only shape my life, but also to impact the kids who we were working with.
Trust and obey. Two simple concepts that when we really grasp onto can truly change the way we do life.
So what aren’t you trusting God with? Or what is he asking you to walk in that you are avoiding? I would encourage you all to take a few minutes to answer those questions for yourself. And if you wanted to share them with me I wouldn’t hate it, I would love to know how I can be praying for you all today.
Love you all!
Audrey
