When we think of sacrifice, we tend to think of something we need to give up. Living in Thailand showed me that that’s not God’s view of sacrifice at all. He showed me worship instead, through the people in the village. He showed me how the lifting of my hands is my sacrifice. It takes the pressure off, to know that He just wants us. He just wants our worship.
Romans 12 talks about being living sacrifices as acts of worship. And when I worship God and see how big He is and how much he is worthy to be praised and how much He loves me, and REALLY get that, that He is my FULL portion, all thoughts about my inadequacy or comparisons fall away. Our earthly perspective is transformed into an eternal perspective. A heavenly perspective.
For those who don’t know, there was a genocide in Cambodia from 1975-1979 so there is still a lot of processing and healing from the trauma that resulted from that time period. And there’s now a young generation searching for the answer to the question who am I because of their parents being killed in the genocide.
Identity.
The first question Satan asked man was questioning what God said. Did God really say to not eat of that tree?
Satan is constantly wanting to get us to question what God says, specifically about ourselves.
The first question Satan asked Jesus when he was led into the wilderness started with, “If you really are the Son of God…” He wanted Jesus to question his identity, who He was, who God said He was. But, as the Holy Spirit fell upon Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry, God said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” We are His sons and daughters. And that’s what we are here to share with the people in Cambodia, those searching for that answer.
Our team got to the Cambodian border on Wednesday morning to join the rest of our squad, and honestly, I did not want to be around the rest of my squad. I was emotionally exhausted from some things and I just wanted to be by myself and run away. But that’s not really an option.
So I went to go find some coffee and breakfast before we started our journey across the border. And I couldn’t find anything. Everything was Thai food, which just means rice, and yeah. Pretty much rice.
I just wanted some toast and coffee. That’s all I wanted.
I was also out of baht (the currency in Thailand) and no place took cards. No one spoke even a little bit of English. So I did what was the natural response to not finding the thing I wanted and started to cry and throw a pity party.
I eventually found a small shop that had WiFi so I used their WiFi for about 5 minutes and got up to leave. The older man working there motioned to me and said, “come come eat eat,” and I frustratingly replied, “no money, only card,” and began to walk away. But his response was, “Free, free.”
I ate with this old man named Cherry and his family for free. They took me in as their family that morning and I’m sure saved me from a lot of tears. And Cherry got to at least hear the name of Jesus, even if He didn’t understand much at that time.
The Lord saw me and knew I needed to feel seen and heard in that moment.
God knows and fulfills our every need.
The emotion I was feeling was signifying that need to just feel seen and that desire and longing and He gave me hope in that moment.
He saw me as who I am, His daughter, in whom He is well pleased. And He spoke that over me as He provided for me as only a loving father would.
He did the same thing for our ministry host here in Cambodia. He answered their prayer. A few months ago they drove past a bar that employs women with the job description of giving the man who pays for them anything they want. More and more women were starting to work there because of the high salary. They prayed for the walls to be torn down, for it to close, and for no more evil activity to go on there. A couple weeks ago, she drove past and the building had been torn down.
God sees us and He hears us.
And He acts.
He cares about who we are and that we believe He loves us that much to actually do what we ask.
For ministry in Cambodia, we are staying at a guesthouse called Overflow Guesthouse. Their vision is for their worship and prayers and love to overflow into the community and to share Jesus with those who come and stay there as well as the Cambodian workers who work there. We’ve been learning a little bit of the language so we can have easier conversations and be able to relate to the people of Cambodia on some level. God really put steadfast love and faithfulness on my heart. Steadfast love and faithfulness are always paired together in the Psalms. I think he put it on my heart for my team and for the people here in Cambodia. To be reminded to love them with the same love that God loves us with. Because it’s not about how many people you love, but the quality of love you give them. Loving out of the love He loves us with.
I pray we choose to see who we are really.
And then we help others do the same.
