Ezekial 37 tells me that God is going to bring life into the dry bones. That has been one of my prayers this month, for God to bring life into my dry bones, into the dry bones of my church, into the dry bones of believers. Ezekial 37:28- "The nations wll realize that I God make Israel holy when my holy place of worship is established at the center of their lives forever."
God…. all I want is for your holy place of worship to be the center of my life forever. If I have learned anything this past month this is what it would be. This month has been a very challenging month. A month of change. A month of realization. A month that is blessed by purposes that only my God can teach. So hear it goes.
It all started out with a morning drive to school and a praise sesh with thejoy.fm! The 7 challenge was the topic of conversation, I have never heard of it before so I tuned in and the more I heard the more interested I became. 7 items of clothing for a month, 7 items of food for a month is pretty much the main idea. The purpose was to become more grateful for what you have and have more of a giving spirit. I was intrigued, so I called up my fellow interns that day to see if they would join me on this task. They agreed so we began to deprive ourselves of random things we like, I figured if anything it would at least prepare me for the race ahead. So here I was picking out the clothes I would not grow tired of wearing along with my favorite food items. Some of these consisted of ramen noodles, oranges, chocolate milk, yogurt, yoga pants, and my favorite TOMS. A few days into this I was enjoying my items and it did not really even feel like I was living in a challenge, if anything it made my life easier because it caused me to have less variety so that meant (NO DECISION MAKING WAHOO)! However, my life soon flipped upside down. My boss Mr. Keith had heard about the challenge the interns were doing and called us in for a pow wow. It so happened that we were each given a grocery bag with powdered milk, yellow rice, white bread, peanut butter, oatmeal ,canned green beans, and a ceareal of choice. He said if we were really in need and had to rely on food pantries for our food these would be our options. In other words this would be my food for a month!!!!! This was a slight bummer becaue I hate oatmeal, peanut butter, and powdered milk… but I agreed to his twist. For the first time in my life I was craving foods like no other and began to despise carbs! Work outs became dreadful because I was lacking nutrients. My friends and I began to argue because of angry stomachs, and I feel like we all became personally self centered because all we could think about was our cravings. Than one night we recieved a text "A fruit truck has come to your village, enjoy fruit until midnight because that is when the villiage runs out of fruit". Lets just say I may of had tears of joy for that apple! To make a long story short, after a few weeks our challenge was called off because we mutally decided that we had learned our lesson to figure out ways to bless others around us who are in need, people who participate in the seven challenge for a life style, and not by choice.
Then the next part of our challenge had arrived. The interns where told that we were moving in with Mr. Keith and his family for about a week. Night one….. a run…. a long run…. uphill….. part of it through sugar sand.. no music… listen to God! This was gonna be an amazing week. A week of realizing where my focus is and what I need to change. As I run I need music to distract me from my breathing, if I was listening to God instead during this time it might make a difference in my life. Other days of the week consisted of challenges amongst interns where we may have been pushed to our inner limits and had to learn to really be a team in the body of Christ in order to serve Him. One night Keith even made the interns carry me about a mile through sugar sand, I was not allowed to touch the ground, this really impacted my heart about the support I need from my fellow believers.
There has also been various other situations in my daily life this past month that are more on the personal side, but to sum it all up God had to teach me this one thing. For God to make me His holy vessel, He has to be the center of my worship. As I serve on teams if I focus on my own wants and needs and do not rely on other members of the body; my center of worship shifts to my pride. If in my daily life I make my desires, necessities even as simple as food into my major thoughts; my focus changes. If I am not consumed with how my God would want me to serve others; my center of worship has drifted. I am so glad that The Lord has taught me this today so that hopefully I will not only use God as the center of worship in my life but on the race… This is my prayer, today I am humbled. I need to become like a living tabernacle, with the Holy of Holies right in the center.
