I just got back from training camp for the World Race and God has been aggressive in making Himself aware that I need to get closer to Him. This week will go down as one of the most impactful weeks of my life. Meeting people that I will spend the next year of my life with was amazing! The leadership on my squad is top notch, I feel bad for the other squads because they don’t have what we have. There will be many more posts about training camp and all the leadership and squad mates but I really want to talk about something that happened when on day 10 of 11. I attended a preaching class….talking in front of people has never made me nervous of given me sweaty palms but sadly, I quickly realized that this was making me very uncomfortable and anxious. But why? So I began to listen to the teaching and when it came to do it for ourselves, I began to panic. We were given 15 minutes to pray about it and meditate on what we wanted to preach about. My scenario was; “Africa, preaching a large group of people who consider themselves believers.” So, I needed to tailor my sermon to fit what I believed they needed to hear. Taking into account the culture and things like that. I began to think about what they needed to hear…blank. I was getting nothing and my mind began to race around and become a massive mess. I thought to myself, ill just grab my journal and regurgitate another persons sermon and ill be fine. Just change it a little bit and throw a story in from my life, super easy. Of course! I cant find my journal. I have had it in my backpack for the past 10 days but now its gone. So I actually left the building and ran to my tent to see if maybe it was in there. Of course! It’s not, why would it be. I went back to the teaching room and heard the rest of the presentation and was then given 30 minutes for finish up my sermon and present it to my squad. Talk about a nightmare, doing something that you aren’t confident in but are required to perform anyway. I sat back down to somehow make up a sermon. I had a blank page. Literally nothing on the page or in my mind. In this moment, God spoke to me so clearly. Asking me why I was trying to do all the work and come up with something perfect just for my squad/Africa hear? And then when I don’t, I try to take the easy way out just by using someone ideas. I felt convicted for not leaning into God and trusting that he will provide for me in every situation I could possibly be in. A verse came to mind, Psalms 3:5 “Lean not on your own understanding, but trust God in everything you do”. The rest of the sermon just came flowing out, I couldn’t write down notes fast enough. God was doing it, working through me to write my sermon. When it came time to present the sermon, while I was still nervous, I completely trusted God that he had my back. I also had a renewed confidence because I knew that people did want to hear what I had to say. And that I needed to be obedient to God and do what he has made me capable of doing. This whole training camp was full of stories that showed me that God wants us to follow Him and have complete trust in Him with everything we do. I am on fire for God and want more and more of Him in my life. Ohh and lastly, I did find my journal, just after I did the sermon. Thanks for reading!
