Wow! I can’t believe that my team and I fly to Costa Rica tomorrow! If you haven’t already seen on social media, my team and I will be in Costa Rica for the entire three months, and are starting in Jaco!
We’ve been in Gainsville, Georgia at the World Race campus for the past four days, and we wake up tomorrow at 4am to drive to the airport and hop on our plane. Over these past couple of days, we’ve heard a lot of different lessons from different speakers, preparing us as we are about to launch. God has taught me so many new things, and I want to give you my two big takeaways.
1.The first thing I learned is something I feel God spoke to me during prayer. I grabbed my journal, and wrote it down. Here is what it says:
“You don’t need to feel pressure to share the gospel immediately, you need to build the foundation first. Have faith. Be patient. Trust God. Partner with Him. Build the culture of love with these people, let them know who you are in me and what I am about.”
I had been feeling this pressure on myself, afraid that I was going to miss an opportunity to spread the gospel, so I needed to keep my brain alert at all times once I got to Costa Rica. It was going to be MY fault if someone didn’t hear the gospel that was supposed to.
This weekend, I learned that since God is all powerful and all knowing, He is going to reach specific people and people groups with or without us. However, he allows us to be used to reach people in order to give us joy and fulfillment, he doesn’t need us. He can do anything. So, we don’t need to carry that burden! We just need to ask to partner with the Holy Spirit, so that we have the honor of being used by Him to reach other people, and feel the convictions of when the Holy Spirit is leading us to do so.
2. We also talked about how we live out God’s kingdom. We break it down into three categories:
a. cave (quiet time with God)
b. the table (fellowship between believers)
c. the road (going on mission)
I think that coming into this trip, I had a mindset of being focused first and foremost on the road, secondly the cave, and then my last priority was the table. This weekend, God totally changed my perspective on those priorities.
Jeremey, who spoke about the kingdom, said something that really convicted me: “All three aspects of the kingdom are important, and if you only lean in to the one or two that come naturally to you, you’re going to miss all that God has for you”.
Woah- that was a shot to the heart for me! I was seeming to forget that sharing and being in God’s word was just as important as being in fellowship with believers. I don’t want to miss all that God has in store for me and others, and I need to hold all aspects to equal importance, and seek and pray to grow where I don’t feel strongest.
Friends, I want to leave you with a couple things from this.
1. What does it look like for you to ask to be in partnership with His plans, instead of asking Him to bless your plans? Pray to be in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to use you in His work, instead of asking Him to bless what you want to do.
2. Are you strongest in the road, the cave, or the table? How can you make sure all are a priority to you? Ask that God reveal that to you, and help you prioritize them all.
Lastly, I just want to end by saying I am so excited to see what God is going to do in Costa Rica. Please pray for my team and I as we launch, and please reach out to me with any prayer requests you have or any questions you have about this trip. Also, if you are someone who isn’t a believer and has questions, I would love to talk it through with you, and I hope that this blog, one I have already written, or one I will write in the future can convict you!
