As of RIGHT NOW, I’ve received just under $1,700 towards by mission trip to Swaziland this summer!
Today in College Collective, the college ministry with Chapel Hill Bible Church, we discussed Matthew 6. As I was totally not watching the rain fall outside during the sermon, I was suddenly snapped back into focus as we reached the end of the chapter:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)
To say that I was convicted would be an understatement. Trusting in the Lord financially for this trip is HARD. I’ve always thought that maybe I wasn’t a “good enough Christian” because I am a walking ball of stress, especially now that I have to fundraise an amount that climbs into the thousands.
But in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he is (quite literally) yelling “Parker, why are you worrying when I make sure everything in my creation is taken care of; why would that mean you wouldn’t be?”
To be 100% transparent, it’s hard to give God this much control over this next season of my life when I’m the type-A-structure-craving-control-freak that I am. I have about as many things to worry about for every dollar that I have to raise… I’m approaching the end of my sophomore year at UNC and I have to decide if I’ll pursue the dramatic arts side of my collegiate career or the psychology and neuroscience side soon.
I know that it’s no accident that this trip is happening at a time in my life where I’m more stressed out than I’ve ever been before–I have to trust him everything.
It’s almost like He’s glorified in our weakness (oh wait, he is!)”
“‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
So, despite my worry, I know that the Lord will take care of me and my needs. He’s proven that this week through the fact that I’ve raised $700 just in the last 3 days!
He is FAITHFUL to PROVIDE. I’ve seen that now more than I ever have!
