I want to begin by apologizing for the terrible lack of updates from our time in Thailand this month, and by no means do I intend for what follows to be an excuse of that. If you’re still hankering for more of Thailand, you can see some more pictures I’ve uploaded from the month over at http://flick.com/photos/timguindon – though they may give the impression we spent most of our time at the beach; trust me that wasn’t quite the case. This was largely a month of intercession and prayer as small teams from our squad went down to reach out to the girls trapped in prostitution.
I don’t have any riveting stories, or heart-wrenching photographs, or life-changing relationships. I don’t have an impressive list of works I’ve done, messages I shared, conversations I had. But God was glorified this month, and I was a part of it. Lest I forget…
This month wasn’t about me.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
In typical World Race fashion, these truths which I would have long affirmed on my doctrinal checklist became real to me in an entirely new way this month. Prayer is by very nature an act of faith, and as Andrew Murray puts it, “The sense of impotence is the soul of intercession.” Prayer must flow from a full awareness of my inability to accomplish God’s work on my own, and a confidence that He is the one working for His purposes and glory. I can rejoice in the opportunity to play a part in those plans and purposes, but let me not forget “the battle is the Lord’s.” (1 Samuel 17:47)
“Between our Impotence and God’s Omnipotence intercession is the blessed link”
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Leslie gave a great sermon during our squad church service earlier this month, discussing the beautiful reality that worship is not an activity that starts and stops as the guitar is strummed, but consumes our very lives. As God got bigger and I got smaller this month, I was able to embrace the complete sacrifice of self in new and liberating ways. God desires, deserves, and enables worship in the smallest of activities. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31) God isn’t waiting for dancing and singing, he’s looking for worship in eating and drinking! “If these lowly animal acts can be so performed as to honor God, then it becomes difficult to conceive of one that cannot.” (Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p114)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
