Okay, I’ve been wanting to get more blogs out for the longest time! But, I kept running into the feeling of wanting to make each blog “perfect” and subsequently making it nowhere on any writing haha. Additionally, I don’t have much time to work on these, so I’m just going to start laying it all out. These will probably have typos, bad grammar, could be worded in much better ways and now most of them are late, but oh well. God’s perfect so we don’t have to be! And I’ve been learning SO much from Him. So here we go!
I wanted to post another blog that dove deeper into the things that we talked about at training camp! Overall, these days were long, but so amazing. We got uncomfortable to say the least. But from that, came so much growth. It was probably one of the most stretching things that I have ever done and I had to trust and depend on the Lord in a whole new way. We heard from many speakers, spent a lot of time outdoors, sat at the feet of Jesus, loved one another, and learned a lot more about God’s character.
Some things He consistently revealed to me…
The truth of the Gospel is much more simple than I make it a lot of the time. The truth that He died on a cross for our sins. He died so that we could be in complete relationship with the God of the universe, the Lord of lords, the King of kings. And that God looks at each one of us with never-ending love, grace, peace, patience, forgiveness, kindness and so much more even when we sin against Him again and again and again. He renews us EVERYDAY when we lay down our lives for Him daily. And He is so worthy of our lives. This truth that I believe in is a person and His name is Jesus. Nothing is better than Him. He is constant & unchanging (Hebrews 13:8). This truth changes lives!
WE CAN STOP STRIVING. And that’s a beautiful thing. He just wants us. Something that came up at camp, was that pride comes in many forms. Insecurity being on one end of the spectrum and arrogance being on the other. It really threw me for a loop that insecurity is rooted in pride. But, the more I thought about it and brought it to Christ, He really showed me the ways that my insecurities held me back from trusting Him more. These insecurities showed that I didn’t truly believe that what He did on the cross was enough. That He wasn’t enough to save me. And truly sitting in that both broke me and made me feel so loved at that same time. From a worldly perspective, these two contrasting feelings seem like they could never co-exist, but with God they can. And I think this whole journey is a testimony to that. Being so uncomfortable at times, but through the Love of Christ, we can find inexpressible joy everyday. A verse that has been helping me meditate on this is 1 Peter 1:8-9. And trust me this isn’t just something I’m immediately saved from, it’s a process that will take awhile to work through, but God’s not done working. He continues to renew, redeem, fight for you. Thankful for a God that fights for us each day!
God is speaking every second of every day and what I’ve realized for me is most of that time He is speaking gently and softly. And it’s very easy for this chaotic world to be louder than His voice. The question becomes… are you listening for Him? And to hear Him, you have to quiet yourself and the world. ITS NOT EASY. It’s a fight worth fighting everyday and I say that as encouragement. Additionally, it’s easy to put God in a box of the things that you already know about Him. I’m 100% guilty of that. But, try to imagine what you are missing out on by living that way. Anyways, moral of the story, He is always teaching. Every second of every day. We need to have the heart of a student and hands open for Him to change us.
Ahhhh and there was so much more! But thanks for reading this far. Don’t want it to come off too “preachy” but this is what the Lord has been teaching me and I’m so grateful for all the things I’ve been learning and for all the ways I’ve been growing. I’m not ashamed of sharing the character of our God! He is so so good and my heart delights in Him! Thank you Jesus.
Excited for the next part of this journey and excited to share more stories when I see you all in person! I love you all!
Lilly
Here is my wonderful team… from all over the US. And yes, we have one guy, Levi who we are so grateful for and love very much! I’ll share more about them in my upcoming blogs!
