Joy in Serving

It's funny, and completely awesome, how a relentless pursuit of God changes EVERYTHING! It's not surprising, however, that trusting in God when He asks you to jump off the cliff, actually works. 

My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. (Genesis 22:8). The story this verse is woven into is a powerful testament to faith, sacrifice, and loyalty. After God makes His covenant with Abraham, and gives him a son, he asks him to sacrifice that son. Abraham obeys God, to the point of raising his knife to kill Isaac, but God stops his hand, and provides a substitute sacrifice. From this story, we get the name Yahweh Yi'reh which translates from Hebrew to mean "God will provide." So here we have this precedent, from the very beginning of the Bible, of reciprocal faithfulness. 

I use this in the context of my own life here lately. I got lost my first semester of school, overwhelmed by full-time class, full-time job, and trying to serve. I prayed hard for God to make more time for our relationship, and He got rid of the job. I'm not going to lie and say that there aren't moments throughout the day where I have that "Oh crap" feeling about where basic necessities like electricity and water and groceries will come from, but I just keep pushing forward. I know it will be ok, even if I don't know how. If I can just make it to September 8...I started this post because I was sitting here thinking about how lucky I am to have this time to be able to serve in different ministries, and to really dig in to what God is asking of me. I'm trying to build a schedule that consists of school, ministry, and spiritual growth. And I'm completely stoked about giving my time to, and for, God...
    

• I'm loaded up for 15 hours next semester (part of which is my own fault), so school is definitely ON beginning August 22. My books have already arrived and are taking up a HUGE portion of my bookcase, haha. I could build muscle just picking up my theology textbooks. Church History I & II, New Testament II, Old Testament I, and Systematic Theology I. And this semester, I'm gonna do better. No more F's!
• Next Monday, August 1, I begin my Teen Challenge class. I'm so excited to work with these women. I've been thinking about making lesson outlines, etc. I think the first segment off teaching is going to be on how to pray. Prayer is so powerful, and quite misunderstood. I said I was going to make disciples out of them, and you've got to have the basics, like prayer! So I'm going to teach them about prayer, and everything the Bible says about how to pray. We're going to spend some time learning from Matthew 6, and I'm going to show them how to read prayerfully, about the different kinds of prayer...basically just anything and everything about prayer is happening. I prob DO need to formulate some plans, so I can outline each segment of teaching at the outset. I can honestly tell you that the excitement I feel for this particular ministry is definitely at the top of my list right now.
• I volunteered to serve in the nursery at church, starting in August, and I'm just waiting on the schedule. I love babies, especially those that belong to other people! It's an opportunity to give my time that really requires no teaching or leading, but it's an important aspect of belonging to the body of Christ, because it allows others to have uninterrupted time in their spiritual growth. And I get my baby fix, lol.
• I auditioned for the worship team at church, just last night. Notice how I underlined the term audition? It's because I don't know if it went very well. Sheet music went flying when I was trying to play the keyboard, after only an hour of practice after not playing in 7 years or so (prob more). I sang, but a couple of notes were off key. So, we shall see. God has been whispering in my ear about putting my musical ability to use. I'll be honest, hopefully still humble, and say that I'm pretty sure that I didn't spend half my life learning to play the piano for NO reason. I offered to teach someone yesterday, so maybe He's trying to open up a pathway to a source of income. Music is really powerful, so I hope that it's something I get to integrate into my ministry walk.
• The next question...do I really want to lead a small group, or am I pushing the point of overextending myself? We shall see, as tonight is women's ministry meeting, and again, I'm feeling that compelling push from God to take another step. I feel like He's saying "book study". I have 23 books in my cart at Amazon....seriously? Pick one? This is another "we shall see" area.   

I used to be consumed with ME, with money, with things....it's so lovely to be consumed with God. I'll end with a GREAT song!