Hey everyone, I’m back with my second blog post! I’m really new at this and find it really hard to find things that I feel need to be blogged about. My plan is to periodically keep you all updated on how my fundraising is going, and also how God is continuing to work in my life as I prepare for the World Race next September.
As far as fundraising goes there is not much to tell. My mom, my sister, and I have begun to sell bracelets that I received from an organization called Threads of Hope. This organization is really awesome in the fact that half of the profits go to me and the other half goes to help provide sustainable work, education, and community support to more than 300 Filipino families! $15,800 seems like such an unobtainable number, and sometimes it seems extremely overwhelming, but I know that I serve a God that is bigger than a dollar amount, and is more than capable of providing me with the resources I need, monetarily and spiritually, to go on this trip if it is His will for me to do so.
Tonight I was reading through some of Genesis and came across the story of Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-32). I caught something in this passage that I had never seen before. Jacob was scared for he and his family’s lives becaue Esau, Jacob‘s brother, was approaching along with 400 men. Jacob went off alone becaue he couldn‘t sleep. In verse 24 it mentions a man, which is later revealed to be God, approaching and wrestling with Jacob through the night. The antagonist (the man) is mentioned first in this verse meaning he initiated the encounter. It was God who was seeking Jacob in this story. God is constantly pursuing us even if we don’t constantly pursue him. God sometimes puts us through seasons of struggle or trials so that we can come out with a renewed faith. In the time that Jacob spent wrestling, his mind was forced away from the anxiety and fear he was feeling, and was fixed on God. Jacob came out of his wrestle with God physically weaker (God broke his hip), but all the more stronger because he had a restored faith and was reliant on God alone for his strength
Two Takeaways:
1. No matter how much you are struggling, God is pursuing you, loves you, and desires to have a relationship with you.
2. Seasons of trials come so that our eyes become set on God alone and our faith has an opportunity to grow.
“A smooth sea never made for a skilled sailor.” -Franklin D Roosevelt
