I wish I could sum up the year in an eloquent statement which perfectly describes the tremendous impact the year has made on my life and delicately touches the hearts of my audience as they hear stories of lives changed, beautiful orphans smiling, or miraculous prayers answered. I cannot eloquently sum up my year though. I know I am different, I know I have seen other’s lives changed, and I know my God has used this year to work in and through me, despite the times when I have avoided His acceptance or His conviction or His plan for this year. There is no amount of words to accurately describe the transformation God has worked through my life this year. I may not look much different on the outside when I return home (except for my worn out and stained clothes that I’ll be wearing), but I am returning home a different person.
There has been a transformation in my life this year!
I know God has given me this desire, and this year He has been revealing to me how to best use this gift to glorify Him. When I hear someone else’s heart, their struggles or areas God is working, I feel a burden for them. I always have, but never quite knew what to do with it. God has taught me to intercede, to ask on behalf for someone through prayer, for each person I have a burden for. He has taught me through intercession to depend on Him to work in each person’s life, which takes me totally out of the picture and allows God to get the full glory He deserves. Through interceding, God sometimes allows me to speak life over that person or share a word of encouragement to them. It has been an amazing thing to reflect back over this year, and see God polishing and shining up the gifts He has given me.
Sometimes though, as the spotlight scans me it comes across an area that doesn’t already shine.
When the spotlight finds a dark place, which looks a lot like me instead of Christ, the light stops! It does not move from the “me” area. The light shines on “me” until that area of my life begins shining on its own. Then the spotlight can move on because that dark place in me now looks like Christ and not my own flesh. But this process is painful. It hurts. But it is God’s DEEP love for me expressed through His refining fire. When I step foot in the refiner’s fire, all my impurities and dark places are burned away piece by piece. The fire hurts because it shows us where we don’t look like Christ, and allows us to lay down those dark places, which have been a part of us for so long, and place it at Jesus’ feet.
“Let your light shine before all men, that they may see your good deeds and praise our Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
