Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.-
Psalm 36:5
God has been breaking me this week. To be honest I have been struggling over the last couple weeks. Struggling trying to put God first in everything I do. I have been so concerned with getting things done, that my focus had left where God wanted it to be…on Him. It is no coincidence that when I take my eyes off of God and don’t make enough time to be alone with Him, everything in my life just seems to fall apart. He wants to be first, and if you are a Christ follower and have given you whole life to Him, your life won’t work if He is not at the center of everything you do.
The Lord has been speaking to me a lot lately about getting out of His way and letting Him work. I have the tendency to want to try and do everything myself. When I try to do this, it always manages to become about “me” again. My Bible study spoke about this very thing a few weeks ago and sure enough it was the topic at the Wednesday night service here at AIM. Do you think God was trying to get a point across? It makes me laugh how God always manages to do that. He is making me realize on a daily basis that this isn’t about me. It actually has nothing to do with me. He just wants me to be obedient so He can use me. He has to do the rest. So many times if we would just get out of the way and let God work, it would save us a lot of stress and so much more would get done. I have realized that I am in a growing process. A process of being stripped away of everything that my flesh tries to hold on to. Just when you think you are coasting along, is when the Lord stripes you even more of what you are trying to hold on to in order to draw you even closer to Him. Although the stripping process can be a painful and discouraging one at times, it is necessary to become closer to Him…and I am thankful for that.
The Lord knows when we need encouragement. It is neat how the Lord puts people in our lives exactly when we need them to be there. This past April I came to AIM to sit in on a few training camp sessions for The World Race. I was only here for 2 days but during that time I met a girl named Kari Stembel who was going to be heading out in September to serve for a year with The World Race. I barely even remember how we met because it was so obviously the hand of the Lord working. We just happened to sit down next to each other at dinner and towards the end of our meal we starting talking. In the process we realized how much we had in common and that we were both going through a lot of the same things. Long story short, we have become very close friends since April. We have been able to keep in touch through phone and email and have been able to be a prayer support for one another. She has become a spiritual confidant for me and someone that I know is always there to encourage and pray for me. It is just so amazing how the Lord works. Kari is here at the AIM base for the next week and she will then be departing for 11 months to minister to the poorest of the poor around the world. She is truly a woman of God and someone
that I admire and love. I can not wait to see her prosper in all that the Lord has for her this year…I know He is going to use her to do great things for Him. The Lord knew I needed her here this week. We have been able to catch up, pray together, laugh and cry together and just encourage one another in the Lord. She is the sister I never had, and Im so thankful for all that God is doing in and through her. She is a true blessing to me! Please keep her in your prayers this year as she will be serving so others may find new life in Christ.
God knows our needs before we ask for them…He is faithful!
For His Glory,
Caroline 🙂
Ps. 56:3
