Come July I’ll be leaving to travel around the world to serve. To love and to work for those who are often looked over and ignored, to show compassion, selflessness, and to sacrifice to bring glory, along with brothers and sisters, to the Kingdom of God and to further His Kingdom here on earth. But I have a problem. I have cancer. It’s not a cancer of the body but of the heart.
I am a selfish, self-satisfying individual with thoughts, habits, and a lifestyle that, at more times that I care to admit, are NOT glorifying to God. How can I bring glory to my Father overseas when I can’t even do it here at home? I become complacent and distracted all too often by hobbies, work, school, friends, and any number of things that any number of people could relate to. I’ve let the enemy have a foothold for far too long, and I’m done. The World Race is about change and the change doesn’t start when I leave. It starts now.
I’ve prayed the past few weeks that God perform surgery on my heart to prepare me in the only way possible for what is to come this year. To cut away EVERYTHING that doesn’t belong and to replace it WHOLLY with the Spirit of the Living God, that my cup would overflow. My desire over this year and over the course of the race is to be so full of Christ that I can’t help but to share it with everyone I meet.
But with that said, I prayed to God for surgery. And my God is a faithful God and I can trust in Him that He will deliver on that prayer. I don’t know about most of you but if you haven’t had surgery before let me assure you (through much secondhand experience) that it’s painful. I don’t expect this time before launch or any of the race to be easy; however, I do expect it to be fruitful. I expect to grow closer to my Creator than I could ever imagine. To walk with Him, talk with Him, and feel His presence. I expect to have my heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh, to be broken and rebuilt as a new man of God. And I expect that I will not be the only racer to go through this.
So I ask everyone who is reading this that you pray for myself and my teammates for strength to press in towards our Father, even when it hurts, for healing of past scars, for guidance, clarity, and discernment in our path across the nations, wisdom and love in our words and actions, and for protection and binding of the enemy in our lives. And my prayer for you is that God perform surgery on your heart. To cut away what doesn’t belong so that you may be filled with the spirit that is my Abba Father, The God of Peace, Love, and Grace. The only freedom you will EVER find is in Him alone!!
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
I also still have a ways to go to be fully funded for this trip and I would LOVE to not have to worry about this and focus solely on God’s work while I’m away. I’ve read a couple blogs where some people are having to dedicate 20 hours a week to fundraising so they can remain to further the Kingdom. I’d rather not have to do that! Jehova-Jireh, The Lord Who Provides, has called me and I WILL answer! I know He will remain faithful and I ask that you do the same. Thank you and God bless for anything that’s been given!!
“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”’How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'” Romans 10:13-15
