My yoke is easy and my burden is light

 

So, as I journey through this 11 month mission trip, the Lord is revealing a distinct part of His character to me each month of the World Race. For Month 2 in Ghana, the Lord was my PROVIDER. Of course, I know that each of these character traits has always been who the Lord is but He is showing me a deeper level of who He is each month by emphasizing one of the myriad of pieces that make up the whole of His character.

I know that the Lord provides and that we are called to be good stewards of what He’s given us. But, in Ghana, He showed me more clearly how much He provides for my physical, emotional, and spiritual needs each and every moment. You see, for the most part, I am relatively independent. In America, I made my own money and provided for myself financially. I was in control of my daily schedule and I like it that way. I did things when I wanted to do them and had a lot of freedom as a single person. I trusted that the Lord provided for me but I didn’t give Him a chance to be my provider in every aspect of my life.

Honestly, God was my backup plan for when my plans went awry or I couldn’t figure it out on my own. Therefore, my faith was smaller because I didn’t have to depend on Him as much. I had bought into the lie that I could be self-sufficient. I compartmentalized my life so that I only relied on God for a few select things and even then, only if I had failed to figure it out successfully on my own first. I figured, Why bother God with petty things that I can handle on my own? Doesn’t He have enough to do with running the universe and keeping Satan in check and all? My thought process also stemmed from pride. I lived as if my Heavenly Father, the Lord of Lords, was a little g god who I only called on when I was struggling and otherwise, I was independent and essentially my own god who could make it on my own. I had surrendered and then rededicated my life to Jesus multiple times. Yet, I still didn’t give Him all of me. I knew that He was my “daily bread” but I didn’t live like it. I had my finances, career, social life, and hobbies under wraps. But I’d let Him help out with an occasional need or prayer request.

In the world’s eyes, I was the picture of a young, independent, financially stable woman with a promising career: everything (most) little girls desire to become, the American Dream lived out. But did I live utterly dependent on Him to provide in every moment, so reliant on Him that everything would fall apart if He didn’t come through? Absolutely not. And I’m learning, that when we put God in a box that we only drag out every now and then when we get desperate, we take the glory that is due Him. But when I surrender my finances and career and even my literal daily bread (the World Race budget is tight, y’all) and am in big trouble if He doesn’t show up, then He gets the glory for my daily provision and my faith deepens as I see Him show up and show off in countless ways that I would’ve missed had I not invited Him in and let Him govern my life.

As I sit here and write this, I don’t even know where to start to list the specific ways the Lord has proved Himself as my provider this month. I’m keeping a list of them and the list keeps expanding and it’s crazy to think that there’s a million other ways He’s provided that I don’t even acknowledge or realize but already my list is long. Mostly, it’s the little things where He’s shown up but really the little things become the big things if you just ask Him to provide and then open your eyes to see how He is already providing and how He’s also granting your seemingly insignificant requests. His faithfulness is UNREAL, y’all, if you just look for it in every moment and stay aware.

So allow me, please, to name a few of the ways He’s come through and provided every time for me in Ghana and even this month in Cambodia. I was harsh in my wording to a teammate and wanted to apologize and within an hour of asking the Lord to give me an opportunity to reconcile, I was “coincidently” next to her during ministry and was able to apologize and resolve the tension. We had run out of jugs of drinking water that the host provides us and I prayed for more water jugs while on the bus on the way home and 7-8 water jugs were awaiting my return to the hostel. This request seems petty to me but the Lord loves to provide for us and to give us good gifts, if we only allow Him the space to do so and ask for it in prayer, believing that we will receive it. He rewards our faith: I’ve seen it with my own eyes!

I wanted to do better with prioritizing quiet times with the Lord and doing it consistently Month 2 and the Lord wouldn’t let me sleep past 6:30 am (despite us having sweet digs with air conditioning and real beds) all month and I was able to do a morning quiet time consistently. I wasn’t as close to a couple of my teammates and the Lord provided opportunities for us to “naturally” be together to get to know them better. I’ve been asking the Lord to deepen my intimacy with Him and empower me to hear His voice better and I had a session with my leaders that was dependent on my ability to hear His voice and I heard Him more clearly than I ever had before and it confirmed that I could, in fact, distinguish His voice. I asked a leader on our squad to be my mentor after the Lord prompted me and the person prayed into it and confirmed the Lord was calling her to be my mentor.

Our team was overwhelmed with the ministry schedule for this month and unsure if we should advocate for more downtime and then the next day, one ministry was cancelled and we got ½ the day off, without mentioning anything to our hosts. We thought we’d have to buy water jugs weekly and carry them up 5 flights of stairs but they “happen to have” a church water dispenser that… Get this: has a cold button and a warm water button. For oatmeal and coffee, am I right?!! And most recently, I felt the Lord telling me to hardcore fundraise the last $2500 I had to raise to be fully funded. Today, I asked the Lord to please have had another person donate and a minute later, I looked at my donation page and I had received a $1000 anonymous donation, which put me at only $550 left to go. Then this evening, I checked my email and noticed that the last $550 was covered by my parents so I’m now fully funded!! Literally, $1550 in one day!

All this to say that the Lord has been providing for me all my life but now that my eyes are opened to see it in everything and to present my requests to Him, no matter how “unimportant”, I have a whole new appreciation for His role as provider in my life. It took Him stripping away all my comforts and my independent American life and surrendering my apartment, career, finances and plans to come on the Race for me to see Him as the Provider of every little thing in my life. And this is just month 3 so I’m confident I will see Him provide in amazing ways throughout the rest of the race. And just think of all the stories I’ll have to tell where He alone gets the glory. This is what this life is about. To Him be the praise and honor and glory forever and ever. Amen!