I’ve been in a really good mood recently. And it’s all due to spending time with God.
I’ve had a really rough time in Ecuador choosing and prioritizing God. From when we got to Ecuador in December up until our midpoint debrief (Jan 11-17) I really struggled to spend time with God. I’m not sure where that came from because South Africa was so spiritually fruitful for me and then somehow I just dropped it. Having a language barrier between me and the people here and living with the entire squad have been big challenges for me here, which definitely played a role in my struggle with God. It was so easy to be distracted by my squad and excuse opportunities to talk with strangers because of the language barrier. Even though I’ve learned such a value for sharing Christ with strangers, the challenge of doing that in Spanish (which I really don’t speak), just made me frustrated. Debrief was a really important break for me to rest from ministry and refocus on my relationship with Jesus. Coming back from the break, I kept up my focus on the Lord for a couple weeks, until I fell back into my rut.
As I was struggling with prioritizing time with God, I was still reading the Bible everyday. However, I had turned it into a chore or something to check off my list for the day. I excused my indifference to what I was reading in the Bible with the knowledge that scripture can go to my heart even if my brain isn’t “all in” while reading it, which is true but not an excuse to mindlessly read the Bible. Over the past week, God has given me a number of reminders of things I’ve been ignoring which have caused space between us.
- Spending time with God is a choice I have to make daily and that means putting Him above everything else. It’s NOT always an easy choice, even when I know it’s life giving and beneficial. It’s also a choice to have a willing heart toward Him during that time. Praying for a passion for Him and His word has definitely helped too.
- The time I spend with God is not limited to reading my Bible or journaling. God is in everything and I had forgotten this and limited Him to a box that He clearly doesn’t fit in. This week I’ve made it a priority to sit and listen to Him, go on runs with Him and bring Him up in conversations. He was already in those things, I had just been ignoring it.
- I am also practicing centering my conversations around Jesus this week because God reminded me of the blessing it is to live in Christian community. I hadn’t been taking advantage of the growth opportunity I have in the 30 people around me. There’s so much room to bring glory to God through the conversations we have and so I’m working on prioritizing Jesus with my squad members.
Those were three big, important reminders that I needed. Since making the time to listen to God and hear those, I’ve incorporated those changes in my daily routine. I’ve been waking up early to make sure I get lots of time with God to start my day. That way I am filled up by the Spirit and I can pour out Jesus’ love each day at ministry. I’ve also seen such a change within myself and my mood since being more intentional about my time with Jesus daily. What a great reminder of the joy of the Lord!
I’d love for you to be praying over my next three months. We’re off to Cambodia in less than three weeks and I’m so excited to see what’s in store and to be a vessel for Jesus there! I’d also love prayers that I would continue to choose the Lord above everything else. Thank you for your prayers, for reading this blog and for all your support!
