Hello!! There’s been quite a few things on my heart recently, so I thought I’d share some of them with you guys..
The past few months have grown me and stretched my faith in ways I never expected. Some of you may already know this, but this is my first time ever fundraising for something, so this has been a huge learning experience for me.. Those of you who have fundraised before will understand me when I say, trust has to follow obedience. At the beginning of the school year God asked me if I was willing to lay down my college plans for the next year, leave my family and friends for 9 months, & use what he’s given me to serve Him. This was a really hard pill for me to swallow, but I knew my answer was yes. However, my obedience has required a lot of trust. I feel like as my launch date keeps getting closer and closer ( 6 months!!!!) God asks this question more and more frequently.
“Do you trust me?”
I’m realizing that as much as I want to eagerly say yes to this every time, sometimes it’s a struggle. However, eventually I end up handing over whatever I’m holding on to and every time I do I wonder why I ever doubted in the first place. Trusting isn’t about understanding everything about God or knowing everything God is doing. Trusting is realizing you will never know, but being confident that He is Good and He is working everything together for YOUR good. When we realize that God is good and God does love us and want what’s best for us, we defeat the enemy in his attempt to rob our peace.
The Enemy:
Ugh, this has been such a frustrating topic for me recently, mostly because we don’t talk about it enough. God has created a specific purpose for your entire existence. This purpose is woven into your daily life… your friends, the school you go to, the family you have, the leaders you have, the people you lead, the things that frustrate you, or the things that excite you… all of it has purpose!! BUT if we’re not intentionally rebuking the enemy who only wants to kill, steal, and destroy our lives then he will manipulate all of these God given relationships and passions – the result of his manipulation is what gives us a distorted view of friendships, love, & motives.
Friendships: The moment faith driven friendships cross a surface level boundary the enemy begins to tremble. Why? Because your strength increases, and in return what you can do for the kingdom increases!! Of course the enemy doesn’t want that, so here comes the manipulation.. Faith driven friendships are real & honest, so doesn’t it make sense that we all are sitting back, being fake, and telling everyone what they want to hear. The enemy doesn’t want us to have the power to call him out for the lies and insecurities that he’s pressing into someone else’s life, so he uses those exact lies & insecurities to fight your willingness to be real with people.
Love:
Love is so precious. We’re called to love everyone as ourselves, which seems to be an impossible command, right? Ok, but who told us that? Who told us that it would be impossible to love the people in our lives that frustrate us the most? Certainly not Jesus. In fact, Jesus calls us to love our enemies…
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment , what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. BUT love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.” Luke 6:32-35
Before you get overwhelmed with that truth remember that He didn’t expect us to do this perfectly, but He gave us an example on the cross. An example that it is possible to not only love your enemies, but to give your life up for them. Through Jesus we are given the Holy Spirit that rests within our hearts and empowers us to have grace and love for others. Has the enemy made us forget this? That we are empowered to love fully, because of the cross.
Motives:
I don’t know if anyone else is feeling like this, but every day something more is being demanded from me. When I really started thinking about this stuff I realized that a lot of it #1 is not lining up biblically and #2 is calling me away from my time with Jesus.. Are some things popping up in your mind?
Are you over working yourself to achieve in sports? Are you draining yourself out to fit in? Are you searching for your identity in academics? Are you putting things off and replacing it with more things? Are you trying to maintain an image that you know isn’t really you?
Now… What do all these things have in common? None of them are about Jesus, so all of them put pressure on you.
The enemy wants to convince us that the pressure is on us to perform, but when we trust we’re no longer independently living like the world commands us to. When we trust we’re delivered from our isolation and placed into peaceful dependency on a God who acts for us.
There’s a story of a centurion man in Matthew 8. This man is a man of authority that needs Jesus to heal one of his servants that is paralyzed. What’s so amazing about this story is the man’s faith is so great that he understands that Jesus doesn’t even have to make the travel to his house to heal his servant. He says, “just say the word and my servant will be healed.”
In verse 13 Jesus replies, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would!”
SO, just trust and let Jesus do the work. No more pressures, no more manipulated versions of friendships, love, & motives.
There’s another piece of scripture in Matthew 11 where Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” – my heart breaks every time I read this, because that is the exact opposite of what our society thinks. Jesus literally rebukes the lies of the enemy in this one sentence and we don’t even believe Him. Can we wake up and start believing this truth that belongs to us!?!?
I’m sorry for my jumbled thoughts & little rant, but I really felt like this part of my journey needed to be highlighted.
So, to whoever is reading this… I’m praying that you will find it in your heart to say yes to something God is calling you to or away from, even if it’s scary. Because obedience leads to trust and trust leads to full dependency on a God who will absolutely transform your life!!
Lots of love,
Kailey
