Daniel 3:16,17 ‘Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deleiver us from it, and he will deliver us from your Majesty’s hand’
I shared these verses at one of our morning team devotion times last month in Swaziland. A few days into the month, I started to feel tired of the race. We were in our 5th month, and still had 6 months to go after that month. I was beginning to lose sight of why I originally decided to do the Race, and was trying to regain energy by reasoning myself into what the Lord was doing. I started trying to plan, strategize, and evaluate where I was going spiritually, and how I was going to get there. But the Lord showed me this verse, and it helped me understand that I didn’t need to defend this trip to myself.
We were visiting one of the care points, and were playing with lots and lots of kids, as always. There was a lull in the action, and I picked up a little girl who was hanging out by herself, probably between 1 and 2 years old. As I picked her up, she looked up at me and smiled the prettiest smile I’d seen in a real long time. In that moment, it became all the more real to me how precious each of these lives are, that I have the privilidge of interacting with. I already absolutely love little kids. But the Lord gave me a small picture of this little girl’s life – how she would grow up, what she would learn, who she would meet, what she would do – it renewed my energy to treasure each moment God gives me on this trip.
So, for the moment at least, I gave up trying to “defend myself”, and rested in the knowledge that, wherever God has me, that’s the place I need to be in. A silly, cliche thing to say, for sure. But it became very real, and gave me lots more peace and energy.
I’m really excited about this month, and what the Lord is going to do with our all guys team. He’s already started to do some great things, and I’m sure there’s lots more to come – I’ll keep you all posted!
