Hello friends!
I know it’s been awhile since I have written a blog, so I thought I would update my lovely supporters and share my heart.
I am SUPER close to $13,500 in financial support from people like YOU! Hooray! $3,000 is still a lot of money, especially this time of year, but I am trusting that the Lord will provide. Please continue to give and/or pray that the money will come.
I also wanted to share some very exciting truths the Lord has been revealing to me lately. Let’s take it back a few weeks ago at training camp…
Training camp for the race was 10 days filled with cold nights, early mornings, challenges, and scenarios to prepare us for our upcoming journey. Aside from the physical preparation, it was a powerful spiritual experience as well. As the 10 days progressed, I was being exposed to things I had never seen or heard and watched transformation after transformation to the people around me. We learned about spiritual gifts and how God sends the Holy Spirit to enable us as believers to preform miraculous feats. I was so darn excited I could barely contain myself! I have the ability to ACTUALLY be the hands and feet of Jesus just like the disciples!? No way!
I prayed constantly for God to show me my spiritual gifts. I prayed for the Holy Spirit to move in and through me, and for me to be able to do all of these cool things I had been hearing about. But nothing happened. Every time I prayed, I could feel myself becoming frustrated at the lack of some wild, vivid response from God that everyone else seemed to be receiving except me. How could Jesus call me to be a disciple and go on the world race when I am not able to receive His provision? The only thing that kept running through my head after each time I prayed, then proceeded to break down in frustration were the words: “keep pressing in”
…WHAT?! What kind of answer is that God? I AM pressing in! I have been asking and begging all stinkin’ week!
You see, what was not clear to me at the time, but has recently become apparent is that the Lord is just pruning me. He says in John 15:8 that you will know His disciples because they will bear much fruit. Uh oh. Does this mean I am not a true follower of Christ? I was learning a lot of cool spiritual stuff, but I really wanted some big honkin’ apples and pears hanging on my tree! … Instead I was empty and feeling spiritually exhausted.
But I had skipped over something very important. Earlier in John 15, verse two says that every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. He was telling me to keep pressing in because I need to be patient and wait on my fruit to grow. If you have ever pruned back a plant in your yard, you should know that you don’t walk outside the next morning to find it bursting with growth again. It takes time. Sometimes entire seasons before those little buds start to appear. But before long, that thing will be full of fruit!
I too am hopeful that I may be full of fruit. Pruning sucks. I think if plants could talk, they wouldn’t proclaim how awesome it is to get their arms chopped off every year. However, the end result is much greater than a little pain and frustration along the way. I haven’t figured out my spiritual gifts yet and I don’t always hear the Holy Spirit speak loud and clear, but I know that it’s because I serve a God who loves me enough to prune me back so that I can flourish in the future.
So friends, keep pressing in. Keep asking and loving and pursuing. The Lord is not giving you the cold shoulder, He merely telling you that your fruit is not quite ready. …Stay tuned. This tree is not done yet! It’s all a part of the process. 🙂
