Training camp was no joke they pretty much threw us out there like we were on the field, no real bathrooms, a bucket of water to wash ourselves with, sleeping in tents in very hot weather and with a bunch of other people which meant lack of sleep. Thrown into different sleep scenarios with people you hardly knew. It was quite the experience!!! I have experienced a lot of freedom that I didn’t even know I was in bondage to!! Wrong mindsets were broken off. Things I didn’t know I had so much dependency on like my eight hours of sleep!! It was beautiful how the Holy Spirit spoke to me through it all and how I clung even more to Him and realized how much I need Him in every moment!! It was a such a huge growth experience everyone should go through!!
I didn’t realize how much we have to comfort ourselves as Americans. We have the comfort of sleeping in comfortable beds with air conditioner and when the air is not working people act like its the end of the world. They can’t handle to sweat, and be uncomfortable.
We find comfort in our position in what we do and how we serve and somehow we have found comfort in masking who we really are. Our identity has been in our career or what we do in ministry and yet while we have looked like a faithful, loyal servant our motive has been totally wrong by serving man instead of serving God. While we say we are serving God by serving man our motive is wrong and we are more faithful to serve the man then we are to actually be faithful to God.
Some spend crazy money on designer bags and clothes, but why?-so it can be seen and our identity has been in the stuff instead of in Him. Somehow we think we are something if we are carrying a coach, or Michael Kors, or driving a Benz–we call it the blessing but even crack dealers got stuff like that. But yet what if all our stuff was stripped away? Could we really find contentment?
Our personal preferences even control who we hang out with. If we don’t like this person or that person we remove them and find comfort in our control of how we set up our lives.
We are addicted to technology, to our phones and for some just can not put them down. We don’t even know how to sit and be quiet and listen to the Lord because we have so much things screaming and distracting us.
I will never see things the same after walking through this week without the comforts we as Americans use. I must say I was pretty shocked on how I handled it, I was stronger then I thought and all I would do is go off into the woods with Jesus and He reminds me that HE is my strength, He is my Peace. He is my Shelter. HE is my comfort. HE is my Joy. HE is my everything and in Him I live and move and have my being in. I have never felt so close to Jesus. And have come to the revelation that truly He is my everything and that no matter what is going on around me He is right there with me waking me through it. Absolutely amazing!!
