Psalm
63
O
God, you are my God;
I
earnestly search for you.
My
soul thirsts for you;
My
whole body longs for you
In
this parched and weary land
Where
there is no water.
I
have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your
unfailing love is better than life itself;
How
I praise you!
I
will praise you as long as I live,
Lifting
up my hands to you in prayer.
You
satisfy me more than the richest feast.
I
will praise you with songs of joy.
I
lie awake thinking of you,
Meditating
on you through the night.
Because
you are my helper,
I
sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.
I
cling to you;
Your
strong right hand holds me securely.
But
those plotting to destroy m will come to ruin.
They
will go down into the depths of the earth.
They
will die by the sword and become the food of jackals.
But
the king will rejoice in God.
All
who trust in him will praise him,
liars will be silenced.
I’ve been camped out in various parts of this Psalm for the
last several months and it has spoken to my heart in various ways. As the race comes to an end here in the
next day or two, I feel as though this truly is the cry of my heart. When I try to find the words to explain
what the last 11 months have been for me, I’m at a loss. This Psalm describes everything that is
in my heart right now-the things I have learned, the things that have touched
my heart, and the things I have wrestled with before the Lord this year are all
here in this Psalm.
The Lord truly HAS become my strength and my song. There is no one and nothing that my
heart yearns for more when I wake in the morning and in the evening before I go
to bed. My thoughts are on Him
throughout the day. Some days I am
struggling and questions are plowing through my mind, while other days, my
heart is filled with joy and praise. The greatest realization I have had this year is that the
Lord desires intimacy with each and every one of us-He pursues us and deeply
desires for us to pursue Him and the things of His heart.
This last month was very precious to me. I spent the last 6 weeks of ministry
fasting from the intranet. My intention
in fasting was to make myself fully available for what the Lord had in store
each and every day during our last month and a half of ministry. The result: I met with the Lord in a
variety of relationships and conversations with my teammates and I fell in love
with the Nicaraguan people. We
spent the month doing a variety of ministries in Granada, two of which found a
special place in my heart: 1) tutoring young girls at an orphanage in town and
2) feeding program/relational ministry at the dump (see Carly’s video). Through these ministries and building
relationship with people from the community, I began to see the Lord’s heart
for this place. I see a thirst and
a hunger in the people for the Lord-they are searching and I see the Lord
moving through El Puente (the AIM base) and the churches in the community to
draw people to himself, and it moves me in some of the deepest places in my
heart. There is a beauty in
Granada that the Lord is waiting to unveil and it’s starting in this
community. I pray I will live to
see this community come alive and shine with the TRUE glory of the Lord.
