This month, 12 days ago to be exact, I gave my life to the Lord.
“What?! You have been saved for many years,” I can hear my friends say. Yes, but 12 days ago I told God He can do what He pleased with my life and lead me wherever He wanted. I have said “yes” to God many times before.
“My life is not my own, to you I belong. I give myself, give myself away”.
I have sung this song numerous times in private and corporate worship and meant every word. But something was different 12 days ago. It was the first time I said those words and had absolutely no anxiety about where God may lead me. I had COMPLETE and ABSOLUTE trust in Him. I trust that He loves me more than I can ever imagine and that He gives GOOD gifts to His children. It was also the first time I said those words without some type of “idea” in the back if my mind of where He might lead me. In the past I always looked at the dreams and passions and giftings God has given me and reasoned that He gave me those for a purpose and so He would probably be leading me into some area where I would use those. I’ve had my own thoughts on what those areas may be. This time though, when I said yes, I had no preconceived notions of where that yes may lead. I said yes with a blank slate.
This is a huge milestone for me. One of the first blogs I wrote on the race was “When God Fails“. In that blog I explained that God was bringing me to a deeper level of trust. Since then I have been growing in trust, slowly but surely, and then something happened to catapult me into absolute trust. Something marvelous!
God provided.
“God provides every day!” you say. Yes, but let me explain…
This month we have been traveling around Nicaragua looking for “Unsung Heroes”. Unsung Heroes are people and organizations that are doing good work, loving people well, who could benefit from the help of future World Race teams. We started the month in the beautiful city of Granada praying that God would direct us to the ministries He wanted us to connect with. We are on a very tight budget and while in Granada we also prayed a bold prayer, that God would provide free housing in the next location we traveled to.
That next location was the capital city of Managua. A friend of a friend (both friends we knew for less than a week) put us in contact with a Pastor in Managua who could help us find housing. When we got to Managua, the pastor, Frederico and his assistant, Jose, picked us up and took us to the church. Actually, he took us to a compound that had a church and school that his organization “Fuente de Vida” ran. The rest is history, as they say. Pastor Frederico and his family and some members of the church made sure we were in want of nothing. They housed us for free. They fed us for free. They transported us anywhere we needed to go for free. They loved on us. They protected us. They laughed with us. We were floored daily by their generosity. I was floored daily by the fact that they served us even when it was inconvenient for them. I was floored by the fact that even with the language barrier they loved on us from places deep in their hearts. I was floored by how many tears flowed when they dropped us off in the next city, Jinotepe, and they repeatedly told us to call them if we needed anything. Most of all I was floored by how well God answered our prayer. He provided above and beyond any of our expectations. We didn’t just have free housing. We had a family! We had relationship! We were well cared for!
Ephesians 3:20
New King James Version (NKJV)
…exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…
God loves us with a length, breadth and depth that is hard for us to comprehend. I have learned that surrendering to His plan for my life may not be easy but I’ve also learned that He will give me grace for wherever He leads. And His grace is sufficient. I’ve also learned that He doesn’t lead us into hardship for the sake of hardship. Any and everything that He allows in our life serves His purposes. I trust wholeheartedly that His purposes are good. So I can trust Him wholeheartedly with my life, wherever He takes it.
