During our first week of ministry here in Jaco, I was having some quality quiet time with the Lord and He spoke the letter ‘R’ into my life…and a lot of lessons to go with it that have transpired through out this month.
In this month I have lost a lot…but through it all, I am gaining even more through my RELATIONSHIP with Christ. One right after the other, I have lost a relationship – a best friend, a computer, an iPod, and a watch. Boom-Boom-Bam, all at once! I’ve felt broken in many ways this month. I am processing a lot, my junk, and it’s a beautiful mess.
Through all of this, God is REVEALING me that…
He desires my whole heart, every last bit. God wants me to let go of a relationship with someone I’ve been closely involved with for the past three years. He wants me to rest my worth, my identity, and my future solely in Him. God is asking me to release my ‘sense of control’ and let my days be defined by Him alone and His desires for me. My time is in His hands. He wants me to shut up and listen, to learn from His wisdom, and to stop tuning Him out with persons, places, or things of this world. He wants me to store treasures up in Him and in Heaven, not burying them here in this world. He wants all of me, and because of that I have to let go of the relationship and the man who I had given so much of myself to. God desires all of my heart, He wants nothing or no one standing in the way of my focus on Him and His plans for me. He wants me to live truly as though God is more than enough, because He is. Only He can satisfy.God is asking me to let go of any preconceived notions.
R
God desires for me to:
REST in Him (Matthew 11:28-31 “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light..),
Be RESTORED by His love, faithfulness, and goodness. (Lamentations 3:22-24 “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'”
REFOCUS on Him.
REPLACE the demands of this world for His desires for me, (Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.“)
REFLECT His heart, (Proverbs 27:19 “As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.”).
REFRESH my perspectives with His and with one of eternity.
REDEEM my brokenness through Him, (Psalm 107:13-15 “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.”)
REAFFIRM my identity and my future in Christ (I am who I am because I AM lives in me. I was made in God’s image and His spirit lives in me.)
No matter how many times I cry, feel lost and lonely, or fall apart, God has brought me into a good place to walk through these trials. The lessons He has been teaching me in these past four months on the World Race have better prepared me for this day. He has set my feet on solid ground, (Psalms 40:2 “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”)… I really have no idea how this process will unfold or evolve, and that’s okay because I’m not leaning on my own understanding, (“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledged him and he will make your paths straight.”).
