DAY FOURTEEN / #fortydayfloodoflove
I just got done working out in the gym, and this is the ocean view from my home.
But I live on $9/day…. How do I afford this?
Spoiler alert: GOD PROVIDES.
Heres how this happened…
My team and I are living in Malaysia this month, on Penang island, and our ministry assignment is “Ask The Lord’. Which means we pray for the Lord to provide a place to live, people to talk to, and things to do.
AKA no home. No contacts. No ministry.
Just pray.
ALSO, we have a limited budget. ( $5/day housing, $4/day food). So we literally cannot do anything unless the Lord provides and of course, He did.
Finances aren’t a problem for our God…it’s all His money anyways!
So the Lord provided us housing, but that’s not what is important.
What you should take away from this story is that He will always provide, and we should always pray.
(Sometimes His answers to our prayers aren’t what we expected or wanted, but He will always provide!)
The entire purpose of “asking the Lord” is to lay down our own agenda and ask God what HIS plans are. And that’s how we ended up here. We prayed that He would guide us, direct us, and send us His way. So we got the direction of Penang, and a few other prayers for ministry.
After a lot of more prayer and emails, we found someone willing to work with our budget and house us for the month.
Before arriving, I prayed that the Lord would give us clear confirmation if it was the right place to stay or not.
The night we checked in, after brief conversation with our hosts, we learned that they are Christians… which is SO rare because 61% of Malaysians are Muslim, 20% are Buddhists, and only 9% are Christians.
So that was God’s confirmation we were headed on the right path.
(We were also praying for a pool and place to work out because… bold prayers anyone?)
Turns out this place is not only in budget but it also has a gym, infinity pool, and (I think God threw this in just for laughs) an ocean view balcony.
The Lord definitely showed us favor in our housing but His blessings didn’t end there.
The first evening, our hosts drove us to dinner after a long travel day. We plan to attend Church with them on Saturday.
The second day we had an Uber driver named Yusoff who was great. He is a Muslim, but was excited to have conversation. He told us about his time in the British army, his children, grandchildren, and his wife. And of course we talked about Jesus Christ and religion and beliefs. We plan to continue scheduling rides with Yusoff, even if it just provides an income for his family. (it is illegal to convert Muslims here)
The third day we visited a local coffee shop that is run by Christians. They invited us to Church and even gave us a ride home.
We had prayed to find “people” in the area. Typically, that is what your ministry host does for you, but God has proven He is more than capable.
He has also started answering another prayer of ours, to work with orphans.
and it is only the fourth day here!
God has given us a lot of “flashy” reasons to brag on Him recently, but I don’t think it is by coincidence.
If there is one thing I have learned on the race, it’s that God wants us to pray bold and specific prayers. He is an INFINITE God, and our finite minds stop at what we think is possible.
But our purpose in life is to praise and boast in the Lord, to Glorify Him. So why wouldn’t He want to give us reasons to brag?
Of course being a Christian doesn’t always mean extravagant living or luxuries (like our gym, pool, and balcony view). We should also boast in our sufferings, which as Paul says, will surely come.
BUT if our hearts are pure, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for trivial or out-of-reach things, Lord willing. Go ahead, pray those prayers, because every prayer left un-prayed is a prayer unanswered. We just can’t anchor our hope or joy in whether or not we receive them.
I share these #fortydayfloodoflove stories with you in optimism that it would boast in the Lord, give you Hope, and encourage you to actively pursue the Lord’s will.
So if you are worried about having enough or heading the right direction in life, I hope you know that our Lord is one of provision and steadfast love.
P.S.
Join us in prayer this month… we are praying to see 10 souls saved!
