Here is the third part of my thoughts on hope and trust in the moment.
As I mentioned in the previous two blogs, David and Joseph had to wait an extended period of time to see God’s promises and word come to fruition. The waiting wasn’t easy and often looked quite the opposite of what they said. In fact, it was almost as if God made sure that everything in the “natural” seemed to go against what He had said. The only thing they truly could stand on was holding to the hope of what He originally said and trusting that He would make it happen in His timing. In the mean time these guys were busy losing themselves amidst a series of rough circumstances that allowed them to be more moldable in His hands.
Abraham was told to go to a place God would show Him…There were other guidelines that God set up in place that I wouldn’t ignore if I were you and my dad would be quick to tell you that Abraham didn’t truly see the promise really come fully until he had obeyed each part of those guidelines. Regardless he didn’t know in advance where He would take him. He didn’t know how he would get there or even how he would know he was there once he got there. He had no plan as to how he would accumulate the wealth or land to set up a nation that would bless the earth through him. All he had was the knowledge that God would go with him and lead him there and take care of things in His timing and in His way.
Moses’ story is “same, same but different” as my friends in Asia would say. God had been working in His life since a child. He was set apart and knew the life of kings and shepherds. At the age of 80 (you are never too old) God told him that He wanted to use him to go back and set His people free. His initial reply was “who am I?” His eyes were on himself. I’m not sure if he was thinking that because he truly felt like he was not worthy of the task or because he wanted the God of universe to tell him how good he was and right for the task. Either way, he asked the wrong question. God answered the question he should have asked by replying “my presence will go with you.” Again, he didn’t quite know how things would work out or how he was going to take an entire nation of slaves out from a dominant king…all he had to stand on initially was that God said He would do it through him and that His presence would go with him.
Well, here we are in Nelspruit, South Africa. Most of the other teams have departed and for various reasons there are a few of us who still remain. We are primarily the group of three teams heading up to Malawi. We feel fairly confident that He wants us there but we are at a place where there are still a lot of unknowns. We are entirely sure how we are going to get there but we have a pretty good clue…now. Once we get there we have a few ministry contacts that we’ve had a hard time staying in contact with so we don’t know for sure what will happen. There are a lot of unknowns left in our plan but we feel as though we are called to go north and let Him direct our paths. The bible says that a man makes plans in his heart but it is God who directs his paths. All we know for sure is that wherever we go, He will go with us.
You can be praying that:
the logistical side of getting to where we need to get to falls into place.
He will keep us safe and protected through these months and especially through travel.
that He would guide us to where we need to be to do what He wants us to do
that we would be able to love the ones in front of us whether here or there
for continued health amongst our teams and squad
for the joy of the Lord to be our strength
we would enjoy spending time in His presence
thank you my friends and I will try to drop some more stuff off in the next couple days
