Tuesday•July 9, 2019•Day 5•Guatemala
First of all, let me just say how thankful I am to finally be back here in Guatemala. Honestly, this place comes close to feeling like a second home for me. Sometimes I still catch myself thinking “Holy guacamole. I’m actually in Guatemala. Right. Now. What?!” It’s amazing to see how God’s promises stay true even if they take a bit longer than you anticipated. In October 2017, when I got back from spending a week in Solola with my mom and sisters, rI felt absolutely devastated to return back to the states. I begged God to bring me back to Guatemala as soon as possible and one of the things that finally gave me peace was this assurance that I WOULD indeed return to Guatemala someday. At the time I wasn’t sure if that promise was from God or just my own stubborn attitude, but now I know for sure that it was God.
One of the things that I believe God is trying to tell me through this trip is to temporarily forget about the stressors and distractions of my own life and dive deeper into His love and promises for me. This has been something that I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember and especially here because I am a worry-wort. So often I will spend a whole day worrying about all the things in my life and constantly just try to get from one goal to the other. Before I even realize it the day is over and I haven’t accomplished anything of any real worth. Here in Guatemala I still find myself constantly thinking about home, not because I miss it or because I am homesick, but because I can’t let go long enough to trust God and let Him take care of it. In our training camp I clearly heard Him tell me “Cherie, it’s going to be ok. The people you care and worry about back at home, I care about the most. I love them so much that you couldn’t even begin to imagine a love like that. Let it all go, take my hand, and just trust that I’ve got it all under control and already have my plan for your life pre-woven.”At that moment I felt a stillness and peace wash over my body as if someone had come up to me and given me a hug. For the next few days I walked in that promise and felt comforted by it, but now that I’m in Guatemala I can feel myself trying inch by inch to take my worries back from God. This is something I absolutely do not want to do. I want to be able to give my full attention and potential to this month and everything God is going to show me through it. I want to be able to pray for people and pour the hope of Jesus into the little children here without the distractions of home being on my mind all the time. So far, I feel like this has most certainly been the biggest struggle for me here in Guatemala and I would greatly appreciate prayer for it. I believe that these distractions are not from God and this must be from Satan.
So now that I can identify where those distractions are coming from I can pray about them and then continually put my trust back in my Savior. Now, when we are asked to pray over a family or handout food to the little local kids here I first pray for God to bless me give my full attention to the needs at hand and not my own. Only them do I feel like I can trust show God’s love to the people here. This will probably be something I will have to do about a million times a day while here, but at least that I know where I can go to find security and reassurance.
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
??Ephesians? ?3:14-19?
