I’ve been home for a full week now. That’s so crazy to me…it’s crazy to know that a week ago, I was in southeast Asia with my squad and we were getting ready to enter the second half of the trip/ministry. I flew from Bangkok, Thailand to Seoul, South Korea to Atlanta, Georgia to Los Angeles, California all within a span of 24 and a half hours back to back. Switching through a couple different time zones was not fun haha, but I thank God for gracing me with the ability to sleep through all of the hours on every single flight.
Since being back home, I‘ve been in quarantine and it’s been rough to be honest. I’m a huge people person and not being able to be around people other than my family has been quite the challenge. Of course I missed my family and of course I wanna spend time with them, but I was also looking forward to seeing and being with my church family and friends again.
I’m going to be real and transparent about this…I’ve been struggling with spending time with God this week. I would say that I’d start tomorrow, but actually wouldn’t. I would just put it off or blame it on my jet lag (this was the worst jet lag I’ve ever experienced by the way haha), and it was easy for me to do those things, but at the same time, I felt super convicted and bad that I didn’t pray or read scripture, etc. I’ve had to surrender my thoughts of disappointment and every negative feeling I felt to Him. Today was different, though.
I’ve been waking up early in the morning this past week, which, if you know me, I’m not a morning person. I guess you could say I am now haha…but anyways, when I woke up today, I had so much motivation and eagerness to go spend time with the Lord. I grabbed my Bible, computer, pens, books, highlighters, journals, and went downstairs to the kitchen table. I put some worship music on and entered into prayer before starting anything else. I asked God what He wanted me to hear today and that whatever He wanted to speak to me, how would it be applicable to my current season of life.
Some pretty cool personal things happened during my time with the Lord. I would like to share one thing that stood out to me, though. It was towards the end of my quiet time, and I had looked at the date in which I wrote out as, “March 25th, 2020.” I had asked Jesus what scripture He wanted me to read and when I looked at the date again, I just saw it in its numerical form, “3/25.” I grabbed my Bible and asked what book I should go to and you know when you just “randomly” get a thought in your head that you know you weren’t thinking of or wouldn’t have thought of? Well, that happened as I heard the book of Proverbs come to my mind and I flipped over to Proverbs 3:25. It says, “you need not to be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked,” and continuing into verse 26, it says, “for the Lord is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.” I got a couple things from this. One being that we don’t have to buy into the fear of the coronavirus (sudden disaster). I took “upon the wicked,” in a different context. I saw it as unbelievers being destroyed by the fear of not just this disease, but the enemy as well. John 10:10, “the thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” In verse 26, we need to cling to the hope of the Lord’s security over our lives. He will protect us and keep us safe in trials like these.
Although I hadn’t had my quiet time until today, I thought to myself, what better timing for this to happen than right now? What better time to share this than right now?
So, friends, as I’ve asked some people for encouragement and accountability with having my time with Jesus, I encourage you to do so as well. It can be hard to start, yes, but that simple obedience and willingness to go to Him regardless of the circumstances or jet lag or whatever it is that we make excuses of is worth being in His sweet presence.
Thank you to all who have kept up with my adventures with Jesus during these past two months. I appreciate all of your guys’ love, support, intercession, and prayers. It has meant so much more to me than you’ll ever know, really. I can’t express the gratitude I have for you in words. Thank you for being in this as much as I have!! I’m completely honored to have shared this with you all. I just might have to keep up with this whole blogging thing if I’m being quite honest. It’s been fun to update you all through it!
The race isn’t over, though. This is just the beginning. The beginning of REVIVAL.
