"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." // psalm 37:4
This verse has always intrigued me. I've heard it used in so many different ways by many different people.
But I struggle to believe any of those things to be true. I don't think that God is a magic genie or a Father who will be manipulated. I also don't think that blessings always have material forms.
1 john 3:1 says "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." God is the most loving, faithful and generous Father there ever could be. He longs to lavish His love onto His children if we would only pause to realize the depth of His affection for us.
The moment I taste and see the goodness of the Lord, I want more. His love satisfies so completely that I am beginning to learn that He is truly all I ever will need. I've noticed that the more I delight myself in the Lord's love, He begins to change the desires of my heart. I used to think all I ever wanted was to get married and have a family. Although those aren't bad things to desire, God was moving my heart in a different direction. Over the course of 2012, the desire of my heart became one word.
I've been blown away with how deeply the Lord has placed this desire in my heart. In the course of a year, He allowed me to go to Denver and Ethiopia on mission trips and attend Bible College in Southern California. I never expected these blessings to be a part of my life. Missions has changed my outlook on life and molded what I want to be when "I grow up".
Last September, during a missions presentation on Costa Rica at my school, I felt God telling me, so clearly, "Go to Costa Rica". I sat in my seat, stunned, because I had never heard God's voice so clearly before. Over the course of two weeks, God confirmed this over and over again through different situations.
And so, I'm moving to Costa Rica next week. Ha, that sounds so weird to say!
I'm going through Calvary Chapel Bible College and will be living at the teaching site in San Isidro with about ten other students. While taking classes centered around missions and evangelism, we will also be doing hands on missions work! I am so excited for this part!!
We will be working in two different orphanages, facilitating a Sunday night church that anyone from the community is welcome to join, taking backpacking trips into the mountains to tell unreached people about Jesus, and most importantly, being an example to the community of the saving grace of Christ.
This is going to be one of the biggest adventures of my life, and I stand in awe that God is allowing me to go. It is incredibly humbling.
I'm sitting here, just reflecting on the goodness of the Lord and how faithful He is to keep His promise. Delighting myself in the Lord led to Him gently molding my heart to be more like His. This is only the beginning and I am nowhere near perfect at this. I still fail to bring all my worries and problems before the Lord. I forget to place time with Him as my number one priority. I still give into the temptations of my flesh and forget to let the Lord fight those battles.
But, beloved friends, God is faithful! He has turned my wretched, broken heart into an instrument that longs to praise and serve Him. I am so in love with the Savior of my soul!
So this simple blog is just a way for me to communicate to you what God is doing in my heart these next few months. The wandering that I am doing with Jesus. Not because I am anything important, but because God is the most important person of all and His faithfulness deserves to be repeated.
All the glory goes to God!
-aud
This verse has always intrigued me. I've heard it used in so many different ways by many different people.
"There won't be blessings in your life until you are truly following the Lord."
"Once I love Jesus enough, THEN He will bring me my husband/wife."
"I must not be following God good enough because I don't have ____."
"Loving God = me getting tons of really cool blessings."
But I struggle to believe any of those things to be true. I don't think that God is a magic genie or a Father who will be manipulated. I also don't think that blessings always have material forms.
1 john 3:1 says "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." God is the most loving, faithful and generous Father there ever could be. He longs to lavish His love onto His children if we would only pause to realize the depth of His affection for us.
The moment I taste and see the goodness of the Lord, I want more. His love satisfies so completely that I am beginning to learn that He is truly all I ever will need. I've noticed that the more I delight myself in the Lord's love, He begins to change the desires of my heart. I used to think all I ever wanted was to get married and have a family. Although those aren't bad things to desire, God was moving my heart in a different direction. Over the course of 2012, the desire of my heart became one word.
go.
I've been blown away with how deeply the Lord has placed this desire in my heart. In the course of a year, He allowed me to go to Denver and Ethiopia on mission trips and attend Bible College in Southern California. I never expected these blessings to be a part of my life. Missions has changed my outlook on life and molded what I want to be when "I grow up".
Last September, during a missions presentation on Costa Rica at my school, I felt God telling me, so clearly, "Go to Costa Rica". I sat in my seat, stunned, because I had never heard God's voice so clearly before. Over the course of two weeks, God confirmed this over and over again through different situations.
And so, I'm moving to Costa Rica next week. Ha, that sounds so weird to say!
I'm going through Calvary Chapel Bible College and will be living at the teaching site in San Isidro with about ten other students. While taking classes centered around missions and evangelism, we will also be doing hands on missions work! I am so excited for this part!!
We will be working in two different orphanages, facilitating a Sunday night church that anyone from the community is welcome to join, taking backpacking trips into the mountains to tell unreached people about Jesus, and most importantly, being an example to the community of the saving grace of Christ.
This is going to be one of the biggest adventures of my life, and I stand in awe that God is allowing me to go. It is incredibly humbling.
I'm sitting here, just reflecting on the goodness of the Lord and how faithful He is to keep His promise. Delighting myself in the Lord led to Him gently molding my heart to be more like His. This is only the beginning and I am nowhere near perfect at this. I still fail to bring all my worries and problems before the Lord. I forget to place time with Him as my number one priority. I still give into the temptations of my flesh and forget to let the Lord fight those battles.
But, beloved friends, God is faithful! He has turned my wretched, broken heart into an instrument that longs to praise and serve Him. I am so in love with the Savior of my soul!
So this simple blog is just a way for me to communicate to you what God is doing in my heart these next few months. The wandering that I am doing with Jesus. Not because I am anything important, but because God is the most important person of all and His faithfulness deserves to be repeated.
All the glory goes to God!
-aud
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