Hello from Kenya! This month I have had the chance to live without internet access again. I have mixed feelings about these opportunities, because while it is always nice to talk to family back home, there is something to be said for the way seclusion allows me to push into what the Lord is doing here on the Race. Anyway, this month I haven’t had the chance to get online unless I go into town on our off day (once a week). So I have capitalized on this, the last of those moments (before heading to debrief in a few days), and posted this blog for you all to enjoy. 🙂
These last few weeks I have been learning more about what it means to “desire God.” Having a heart that desires the things of our Father is something that I’ve always wanted as a believer but have struggled to maintain in my walk. Over the past 6 weeks or so I’ve had the opportunity to lead a Bible study on Philippians with my team. I’ve gone through it once before (with my life group) a year ago, but it’s been a privilege to get into it again and find new things; all that to say, a verse we covered at the beginning of the month has really been speaking to me.
“for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)
Through this verse Papa has been showing me how it speaks to my desire to seek Him. What I’ve realized is that HE is the One who works in me… and HE is the One who puts desires in my heart. So my prayer life has started to shift as I begin to ask that He places HIS desires in my heart. This spoke to many areas of my life other than just my relationship with Him. Take for example this entire Race that I’m on… there are more than a few things I do of which I am not passionate about. It comes with the nature of the journey; we see a little bit of everything and so naturally there will be days when the ministry I am involved in doesn’t conform to something that I feel “gifted” in. But in those moments the Lord is telling me that HE is the One who brought me to this place and so HE is the One who will put the desire to serve in my heart.
So I have begun to focus my prayer life on asking for the Spirit to fill me with the desires of the Father. It is amazing to see the results of this prayer as I step into roles that I previously had no interest in. When I face situations that I would normal shy away from, in order to leave it in the hands of more “qualified” people, I now ask for divine intervention and for Daddy to place some more of His passions on my heart.
This doesn’t mean that I never get challenged or that every day is a walk in the park. Faith is produced through perseverance and there is still a growing process to go through in order to be more like Christ. But I now know that there is never a time in which I can walk away and excuse it with the words “I’m just not called to that.” My Jesus was called to come to this earth and die for humanity, but that didn’t stop Him from loving people on His the journey to the cross. No matter what my “calling” in life, I know for a fact that God can use me right here right now. “Abba give me the desires of YOUR heart and place them in me so that I can follow in the footsteps of Your Son. Amen.”
With Open Hands and an Open Heart,
Tanner Hubbard
