Hello friends and family!
I am in South Africa (check out my facebook pictures!) and life has been so good here! We’ve had quite the varieties of ministries here including working on horse farms, hosting Christmas parties to kids whose parents struggle with alcohol and drug abuse, and partnering with various ministries in the area.
The past couple days, the Lord has been teaching me an insane amount of really awesome things… after a month of not hearing much from him! (Hence the lack of blogs)
I’d like to share a really cool experience that happened to my team last night:
Every night we have team time after dinner. Last night we decided to have it on the beach (since it’s in our backyard! Praise Jesus!). We fellowshipped and “star tipped” (everyone should try this) and talked of God’s goodness. Then my teammate Jen felt the Lord telling her to tell us to wash our feet in the water.
We walked down to the shore and stood ankle deep while singing praise songs to our Father. After a couple songs the Lord said to me, “Sabrina, close your eyes.”
Now for a backstory:
A couple days ago God opened my eyes to how little I trust him with my future, and how unwilling I am to let go of my control of it. (funny… “control”)
I met a woman at my ministry site named Sherley, and I was amazed with how at peace she is with God and his plans for her life. She has lost many family members and has had an extremely difficult childhood, yet she is in complete peace with who God is.
She is also in the process of getting her passport because she feels the Lord is going to call her out of South Africa. Where? She has no idea, but she’s at peace with it.
Then I realized that my unwillingness to let go of my control is because my aim in life is to pursue my own happiness. I thought if I stopped pursuing it, I would not be happy. How deceived I was without realizing it! It also shined a light on how little I trust God and who He is. I thought that if I gave the control to Him, he would give me an unhappy, hard life. Is this our God?! Do I even realize where I’m at right now and who brought me here?!
Because I believed he would give me an unhappy life, and my aim for my life is happiness… I struggled with entrusting him with my future. (most of this was subconscious until God graciously revealed it to me)
I realize the error and dissatisfaction of seeking a life of happiness by my own control, and God is teaching me the real, unexplainable joy of seeking to lift Jesus’ name high with my life. But lets go back to the beach.
“Sabrina, close your eyes.”
“What? I can’t. I won’t see the big waves coming and my shorts will get wet.”
After arguing in my head a bit, and closing them up until I started to hear a wave coming, I finally shut my eyes, determined not to open them.
As a wave approached, the sound would get louder and louder and I would prepare myself to get hit by a waist-high wave that would soak me. But then an ankle deep wave would wash over my feet.
This happened time and time again and although the waves sounded huge, they never went higher than my ankles. (before I closed my eyes, I was being hit with huge waves and I kept having to back up to keep from getting wet)
And then I realized the picture God was giving me. He wants me to close my eyes to all my future plans, and just trust him. It’s scary and the waves sound ginormous, but He is good and he is trustworthy. Even if a big wave comes and I get a little wet, He is still good, and he is worthy of a life lived to lift his name high.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Sabrina
2 Timothy 2: 4
“No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”
