I knew going into this month that I would not have any wifi because we would be out in the middle of the bush and I was so excited about it. I was looking forward to no distractions. I was also looking forward to one less thing to hold onto.
Then, I got sick and even though I still was so thankful for no wifi, I realized how much I wanted something of comfort. I wanted my couch to lie on, my favorite food, or just the freedom to go get what I wanted. We live on a compound here and it’s not safe to leave unless we have our ministry host with us.
Being sick and not getting any sleep kept me resting long enough to spend more time than usual with the Lord. I started thinking about the world and how much we long to find comfort whether it’s in other people, food, our house, or our phone.
James 1:27 says, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I visited orphans and widows this past month, but it was Worke who shared with me the importance of keeping myself unstained from the world. Worke, who was a house mom who prayed for us when we were sick and celebrated with us when we shared the good God had done in our lives, has experienced more discomfort than I will probably ever feel.
She has spent time in prison for her faith not only once, but three times. It is a reminder to us that not being able to get through the Chickfila drive through line in just 5 minutes is not discomfort, me laying on a bed that is not my own when I’m sick is not discomfort, and me not being able to get the normal things I like to eat is not actual discomfort.
I was thankful to be in Ethiopia; it was the first month where there was no comfort in any way. Where I could really evaluate if the world was in my heart or not.
We watched the Prince of Egypt with the kids the first week and it made me think of how even when the Hebrews left Egypt, they still had Egypt and the world in their hearts.
They were afraid of God’s presence. They didn’t want to know God intimately. They wanted the comfort and riches of this world.
Moses, however, refused to go into the promised land without the Lord. He didn’t want to go if the Lord was not going up with them, because he had gotten to know Him. And he knew the goodness and satisfaction.
The Israelites wanted God’s blessings, not His presence, not just Him.
I started thinking about how whenever I feel discontent, it’s because I am not getting from God what I think I should be getting.
But I always have Him. An authentic relationship. His presence.
At the beginning of Cambodia, God gave me the word treasure. He was speaking over me that His heart is my treasure and my heart is His treasure. I’m realizing more and more what that looks like.
Proverbs 2 says, My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord.
He stores up wisdom for the upright. That is what he stores as treasure. We WILL understand the fear of the Lord, if we seek it.
I think that’s why so many people have such a hard time grasping what the fear of the Lord means. Because we don’t seek it like treasure. It’s one of those things we are okay with not knowing what it really means. One of those things we won’t understand this side of heaven.
But that’s just it. There are things we can know this side of heaven, if we want to truly know them.
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.
I want to know the depths of his wisdom and understanding and knowledge. And we will find it when we seek it like treasure. When we seek His heart like treasure.
HE is our great reward.
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. Psalm 25:14
We must be a friend of God, not the world. Friends share secrets. He will tell us secrets if we care more for Him than the world’s comforts.
That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-3
There was one night that we played some secular music and that very night Worke, Mange, and Merguste were on their knees rebuking any spirits that came onto the compound because of that music. We had no idea the difference in spiritual climate and sense of comfort in Ethiopia versus America. There’s no gray area here. When I asked Worke about it later and apologized on behalf of the squad, she shared how we were too young to realize that we are not meant to be apart of this world. We are meant to pursue holiness.
His heart is the treasure we seek. Not pleasure, comfort, or riches.
Just like Worke showed us this month. Our true comfort is in the Lord.
