We were asked to write a blog about how we felt before leaving on this mission trip. Here’s how I feel and what I’m expecting…
I’ve had a few weeks to think about what I expect to experience on this trip, and so I thought I’d give you three of my favorite scriptures and then some key words that come to mind when I think about this trip….
Zephaniah 3:17 says…
“The
LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great
delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over
you with singing.” Another translation says, “The LORD your God is in
your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He
will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
“
LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great
delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over
you with singing.” Another translation says, “The LORD your God is in
your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He
will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
“
1. LAUGHTER
One of my favorite things about the Lord is His laughter in my life. I am constantly laughing at how He does things and I truly think He gets a kick out of each of His children all the time. I love to make people laugh and I know that characteristic truly must come from our God who created humor! I am expecting on this trip to hear His laughter through even the most mundane things. I know He will show up and make me laugh when I’m tired and hurting, hungry, and worn out. I am trusting that He will be my source of joy and enjoyment throughout this entire trip!
2. BATTLE
I know this trip will be a battle field of broken hearts and hungry people who are in need of love and salvation. I know that some of the most broken people on the field will be the soldiers themselves, including me. I certainly am expecting this to be a battle for each and every day, taken inch by inch and hour by hour. I know I will be part of taking back what the enemy has stolen. I also know that God will be my WARRIOR and will protect me and fight for me all the time. He is mighty to save…to save me and to save each person I meet on this adventure. I am expecting to see war waged in a very real way but I know God will win every battle because He is a VICTORIOUS warrior!
3. PEACE
What I love about Zephaniah 3:17 is that it shows that peaceful, quiet side of the Lord. I am so blessed that He has come to me in that very way and given rest to my bones. He continually shows up and pours out His love in such a quiet manner and I am always left feeling so refreshed and more encouraged than before. I am anticipating God to come and meet me and every single member of my team with His quiet love. I know He will come and rescue me out of the pit, He will provide sanctuary, and He will overflow with His joy to each of us! I can’t wait to see how He, the true Prince of Peace, will come in and speak peace to the nations! I am so excited to watch Him blanket His people with His peace like freshly fallen snow.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says,
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity
in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from
beginning to end.”
in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from
beginning to end.”
4. AWESOME
This is one of my all time favorite scriptures because I have so often wrestled with trying to understand God’s timing. Sometimes I have moments where I feel I can grasp even a fragment of understanding of how He operates and then it slips away just as fast. God is so much bigger than I even know yet He has placed inside of all of us this desire to see His timing come to completion. Even so, I know that I cannot possibly realize how big He is and how IN CONTROL He is. I am waiting to see His bigness be manifested through a tiny child, a broken heart, or a beautiful field! I want to be left in AWE of who He is…I want to reckon with my own smallness in order to see His greatness!
5. ETERNITY
For so long I have always put time parameters on people and myself. Unfortunately, I have put many timelines on God, expecting Him to do things in a certain timing and in a certain way so that it would be less painful and make more sense to my logical brain. God just doesn’t operate like that, and through the last two years it has been hard to let go of my own timing. I am really anticipating even deeper layers of my human timeline to be erased while on the field. He will take out my concept of time and replace it with a more pure understanding of eternity. This will be painful because it will mean letting go of people, things, and my self concept in order to see beyond my little tiny reality so that I can conceptualize and ultimately operate in the bigger reality of eternity!
Hosea 2:14-15 says…
14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
6. DESERT
Ohhhh have I experienced many desert places since I started walking with the Lord. It has been so encouraging to read my teammates’ blogs and see how they, too, are expecting to lose sight of themselves and walk into unknown wildernesses for the greater glory of God. What I love about this verse is that it does not say that God SHOVES her into the wilderness or THROWS her into it. He ALLURES her there. I know that I will be led into many physical and spiritual deserts on this trip, and while it might be very dry at times, it will also be glorious. If I have learned anything about the desert, I have learned that it is there that God is closest to me. There He is patient and does the most work in my heart. I have learned that it is not enough to have a mentality of merely surviving the wilderness, but it is correct and appropriate to have the attitude of THRIVING in the wilderness seasons of our lives….
7. HOPE
That’s because the desert isn’t just a place where God separates us and takes out things from our hearts and lives. The desert is ultimately a place where God provides. he gives us back our vineyards (our hopes and dreams, our passions, relationships) and gives us new HOPE for the future. I am expecting just as much to see God deliver me from sin and areas of weakness and give me new hope and new strength through Him. I know He will come into my life and completely ruin all that I understand only so that He can replace it with more of His truth. However, at the end of the day, I expect to walk away from this trip SINGING at the top of my lungs songs of joy and praise and thankfulness.
THE END!!!!!
