I’m kidding about the whole Jake from Jesus thing… well, kind of…. not really! ??
It’s been the joke here lately, that I’m looking for Jake & not just any Jake, Jake from Jesus! We’ve made a lot of jokes about this guy lately, but regardless of who he is or where he is, or what we may say about him, Jake from Jesus completely changed my life the other day.
I had just fully committed to going on the Word Race and paid my first deposit. It was way more than I had to pay, but I truly felt God telling me to do it. Once it was paid, the peace I had been feeling started to fade away a little bit. I sat there in my class and quietly questioned the Lord as fears began to fill my head! God, can I really afford this? Are you sure you’re going to provide? Can I really take a year away from my life and go on the mission field…. for a year? Am I able, even capable of doing the World Race and leaving everything behind for a year? & maybe the biggest question that wreck my heart, God did you really call me to this? God did I miss you?
The Lord has made it so clear to me in the days and weeks prior to finally committing that this is where He wanted me, yet the minute I submitted that first deposit and the money left my checking account fear set in. The last thing I want to do is travel the world, pay thousands of dollars, and serve people in His name, if that isn’t actually where He wanted me to be. The fear of missing God on this wrecked my heart and mind.
Once class was dismissed and I left the room, I started walking down the hall. When a young man approached me. He looked at me and simply said he wasn’t sure why God had called him to do this, but he felt that God had. He looked at me and simply said whatever is going on in your life you can trust God. He has you! & after he said that he handed me $100 in cash!
Little did he know, that moments prior I was questioning the Lord and worried to death, and here out of nowhere a stranger walks up to me and hands me $100 cash and tells me that I can trust the Lord. Tears started rolling down my face as I explained to Jake what was going on in my life. He was so kind and offered to pray for me in the hallway. Jake might just have been the coolest person I’ve ever meet.
In a moment of weakness, when I lost sight of the God I served and began to rely on my own strength, He sent a stranger named Jake to remind me that money is nothing to God, that He has in indeed called me to this, and that He has me, just as He always has. I’m thankful for people like Jake and pray that one day I can have as much as faith as Jake did. Faith to simply walk up to a stranger and hand them cash and let them know the faithfulness of the Father.
I’m thankful for a God whose love for me is as crazy as the story of Jake from Jesus. I’m grateful that He doesn’t provide for His children in ways that make sense or are easily understood, but instead He uses encounters in crowded hallways in moments of weakness and fear. I’m thankful to attend a school as cool as Liberty University where I get to be friends with and meet people as cool, faithful, and in love with Jesus as Jake was. I couldn’t image going to school in a better place.
& I cannot wait to see more “Jake” moments because I believe that I serve the God of “Jake” moments! In moments when fear sets in, when I start to question my abilities and God’s sufficiency I’ll remember Jake and how God used His faithfulness to draw me closer to Jesus!
“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations!” Deuteronomy 7:9
XOXO, Lauren
