happy sunday 🙂 this joyful morning, my team got to lead squad church! (my squad is the entire group of us – guys, girls, and leaders – that are living together and traveling together; our squad is about 30 people, and within that group, we are broken up into four teams, each with about 7 people on them, and it’s my team of 7 that led church for the squad of 30)
because of the covid guidelines right now in georgia, we are not allowed to leave the world race campus – which means that Sundays, we get to do church together as a squad! right here where we live!
so, as I mentioned, my team got to lead church for our squad this morning 🙂 three of my (extremely talented) teammates led us in worship, another teammate of mine read scripture for us, and then I got to share, alongside my teammate Mackenzi, a message on 2 Corinthians 1!
we focused on the verses 12-22 from this chapter, and we got to share about Paul’s boast that was rooted so deeply in the Lord, the fact that the Father alone established Paul’s plans, that every purpose and plan of the Lord will prevail, and that every single promise given to us in Christ is always yes! and we can always respond with amen!
to prepare for church this week, I did a word study on “amen” and wow. the word amen is what’s called a universal word, meaning that “amen” is the exact word used in almost every language across the globe, always said just like we say it, whether you speak Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, or so many other languages. and because of that, it’s considered the most well known word in the world. Isn’t that crazy? the very word that we “utter to God for His glory” (2 Cor. 1:20) is the word that is the most well known in the world. why is that we might ask? maybe because “our God is not a God of confusion, but a God of peace.” (1 Cor. 14:33) maybe because the gospel is not regional. maybe because our God isn’t a cultural God. He’s so much greater than any language, region, or culture, and He wants to be known, He deserves to be praised.
“amen” is so much more than a word we say to be a happy closing to a prayer, but it has the weight of being a universal word, and not only that but it has meaning! “amen” means “truly” and “so be it,” so very literally, when we say amen, we are proclaiming our trust in the Lord. and that universal word is the word that we “utter to God” out of trust in His promises.
I wrote down just a few of His promises here:
His faithfulness!
His provision of daily bread!
His promise to sanctify us!
His sovereignty!
His promise to forgive!
His justice!
His goodness!
and get this 🙂 we get to say amen, to choose to trust in His promises, no matter if we feel like those promises are true or not. that means that we get to trust in His forgiveness, whether we feel forgiven at that moment or not. we get to trust in His sovereignty, no matter how out of control life may feel. we get to trust that He is good, no matter how confusing or broken our hearts may feel.
what a Savior.
that’s a part of the message that Mackenzi and I were able to share this morning, and this afternoon I’ve been reflecting on the significance of it as we’re living on world race – here in gainesville, instead of being able to stick to our original plan, which would’ve put us in Romania right now.
Paul uses the whole passage of 2 Corinthians 1:12-22 to tell the church that his travel plans are changing, but despite those changes, the word of the Lord remains true, and His promises do not fail.
the plans of our squad, like almost every plan of so many other people, has changed. and changed a lot. but the Father’s promises to us are just as true as they were back when Paul wrote the letter. His word still remains, His plans still prosper, and He is still faithful.
so as I reflect and wonder why I’m spending three months in Georgia instead of three months in Romania, I’m reminded that no matter where my feet are, the God we serve is incredibly sovereign and so faithfully good to us 🙂
maybe He has us here because He knows that after months of online church, we as His people needed to be reminded what it looks like to be the church in fellowship, before we went to be the church across the world. maybe He has us here because when we didn’t really have plans during quarantine, we forgot how to submit our plans to Him, and need to be reminded of the joy in surrender. maybe He has us here because He knows that before we go and share about the cost of discipleship, we need to be reminded of the cost, and reminded that it’s worth it. maybe He has us here because in the midst of the uncertainty in the world right now, He wants to remind us that He is certain. maybe He has us here, on the world race, to remind us that our identity isn’t in the routes that we prayed over, the places we chose to go, but our identity is in the God who made us, in the King who calls us His sons and daughters. and maybe, almost surely, we will never fully understand the reason the Lord brought us here to Georgia, but even if we don’t understand, we get to trust and know that His ways are higher than ours, His plans are for good, and His heart is for His kingdom. and that’s the God that we get to say yes to! the promises that we get to affirm with an amen!
so let’s praise our Father, for His will being done here. let’s praise Him for working in ways that are bigger than our imaginations. and let’s praise Him for accomplishing His purposes, no matter our plans, and despite our feelings.
yes and amen.
