If someone would have come to me 5 years ago, 3 years ago, or even a year ago and told me “Hey Michaella, God is going to call you to go to the nations and tell others about Him.” I am pretty sure I would have nervously laughed at them and said two small words “No Way!” But my plans are not the Lords plans. Jesus says in His word, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) So here I am fixing to embark upon this journey that is known as The World Race, in August of this year. WOW!
In preparation for this journey, among acquiring all of our financial and material needs, we are also preparing our spirits to take this journey with Jesus. We started reading a book that was written by the founder, Seth Barnes, of The World Race.
In the first part of that book I found myself understanding and relating to the feeling he was describing when he was talking about finding your identity in Christ. In other words….I have found that leaving is healing.
“We go on a journey because he told us to go – to leave. In physically leaving, we discover
spiritual possibilities. Jesus spent three years leaving places, leaving people before finally
leaving life itself. To know Jesus, you have to learn how to leave. In the end, the leaving is the
father and your mother; you get the family of God. You abandon your life, and like a seed that
dies and grows a hundred times its size, you find new abundant life.”
This is an excerpt from the book and it made me think of where do you find your identity? In Christ or in where you’re at? In Christ or in the people around you? I think of this as if God is wanting to wipe away the makeup on my face. Just remove all of the lies that society has told me I should be and should wear.
He wants to take us on a journey with Him, for us to see who we are in His eyes, for Him to wipe away what I think I need to show, what our society has told us we should show, and let the beauty, that is of Him, shine.
1 Peter 3:3-4 (NKJV)
3) Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel
4) Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
Genesis 1:27 (NKJV)
27) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
One of the quotes at the end of this chapter really resonated with me….”a glimpse of who you could become if only you weren’t saddled by so many expectations.”
I know that I am speaking for myself here, when I say, I try so hard to please those I love, admire, and care for around me rather than stepping back and asking God if what I am doing is pleasing to Him. Again, leaving is healing. Leaving will take me away from those expectations and those thoughts of others that I feel like I have to live up to. In Mark 8:22-26 we see where God took the blind man out of town, out of his comfort zone, for the blind man to really receive his healing, and to not be distracted by his surroundings, or the people, that he had grown so accustomed too.
Going on The World Race, it is a journey that God has called me to take to spend one on one time with Him. It will be challenging. It will be difficult at times. It will hurt. It will break my heart. Yet, in the end, God merely just wants to spend time with me and show me His perspective and His point of view. He merely asks for us to deny ourselves and pick up our crosses and follow HIM! He doesn’t want what you are leaving behind…..JESUS WANTS YOU!
