“God, what do you want to teach me through this process?”
This is something that I have recently started asking the Lord on a daily basis. Fundraising for this mission trip has already taught me a lot about God and myself. At first, the idea of fundraising and asking people to support me scared the living daylights out of me. This would be the first time I had ever raised support in my life and I was overwhelmed with where to even begin. Fear and anxious thoughts consumed my mind and even though many resources were given to help me through this fundraising process, I began to do things my way. I was taking time to pray about different fundraising ideas but was not taking the time to listen.
Each day I’d wake up stressing deadlines and worrying whether or not enough funds would come in. My trust was not where it needed to be. I began coming up with tons of different ideas for fundraisers and wanting to start them all immediately. After about a month of going down this path, that is when it hit me… I was doing things my way, not Gods way. Can you say heart check?!
In preparing to raise money for this ministry, I needed to start things off by preparing my heart. The invitation to raising support, is an invitation from God to come into closer relationship with Him and build relationships with others as well. Once this sunk in, my whole view on things changed! >> Thank you Lord <<
From there I began looking up bible verses that would help me stay focused on trusting God and sincerely enjoying the fundraising part of the journey. (Luke 6:46-49, Philippians 4:6-7, Mark 5:21-24 and 35-43) I’ve been working on praying AND listening as well as speaking against the spirit of fear, the spirit of pride, and the spirit of anxiety and worry; which were all holding me back from the true joy of fundraising.
“God is trustworthy and faithful. ~ He wants to teach us about Himself and others through fundraising.”
This was what I needed to hang on to and continue to let resonate in my heart. God is trustworthy and He is faithful. And if He brings us to something, He will get us through it. I’m happy to say that God has given me a completely new view of this journey that He is sending me on and He has restored joy and a refreshing gratitude to my heart and mind!
My prayer today is to have a spirit of learning and a teachable heart and to rely on God to provide and guide me not only on this journey but throughout life altogether.
Thank you Lord for this heart check. <3
