I’ll be honest, I haven’t been as good about writing my blogs recently as I’d like to be but it’s not for lack of trying. I can’t even count the number of blogs I’ve tried to write but I just never seem to be able to finish. I can never figure out what it is I want to say so I’ve decided to try something new this time and we’ll see where I end up.
We’ve been in Kluff for about two weeks now and the Lord has really been opening my eyes and teaching me so much. It all started on the first day that we got here, Gabe, our ministry host, had asked the question “Who here is comfortable with standing up and giving a message” well I’ll be honest I didn’t raise my hand. He followed that question up by saying if you weren’t raising your hand maybe you should be and so the Lord began convicting me.
A couple of days later I was sitting with the Lord in my quiet time and I felt like the Lord had been calling me into more boldness in a lot of ways but especially with being willing to give a message so I prayed a big and bold prayer. I told the Lord that my hands were open to whatever it is that he might be calling me into, I gave him permission to call me into the uncomfortable whatever that may look like and he wasted no time in answering me. Later that day for ministry our leaders split us all into groups to do a variety of things based off what they felt the Lord wanted us to do. One group went out to evangelize, one group did intercession, one group did a deep dive in the Bible, and finally my group got assigned to going and writing some messages. Just like that the Lord not only heard my prayer but answered it instantly with an opportunity to follow through on what I had said. So I spent the afternoon writing a message on Romans 8 and then presented it to the rest of the team later that night. While I could write more about that experience the point isn’t what I wrote about but more about the step of faith it called.
Another thing that I had felt the Lord convicting me of, from almost the second we got here, was being more bold in evangelism and sharing the gospel. One thing I’ve learned about our time here has been that a lot of ministry looks like looking for small opportunities to share the gospel. That same day that I had previously mentioned with writing the message also presented another opportunity for me to step out in faith. Our mode of transportation here is through Ubers and we decided as a group to use all of our car rides as an opportunity to evangelize. So after we had finished writing our messages it was time to head home and as much as I didn’t want to I got into the front seat which made it my turn to share the gospel. I’ll admit it started out a bit rough but as I sat there and asked the Lord to give me the words I needed he was so faithful to answer. I honestly have no idea what half of the stuff or questions I asked were but the Holy Spirit was speaking through me and planting seeds.
There are so many more stories that I could share, I think I have at least one for every single day we’ve been here but I want to get to the point of why I even share these. This didn’t all start just because of a prayer I prayed or something I said but because I asked the Lord to call me into more and I followed it up with actually taking a step of faith. What the Lord was so quick to open my eyes to after that small step of faith was how much more he has for me and how much more he wants to give me.
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” – Luke 16:10
Since the day we got here the Lord has been convicting and revealing so many things to me and a lot of them stem from this verse. “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much” I always thought that I had a good understanding of this verse and that I’ve always followed it pretty well but boy was I wrong. Yes it means to be faithful with the jobs or things the Lord has placed you over but it also means to be faithful in all the opportunities the Lord has given you. The Lord answering my prayers in the previous stories showed me so much about where I was lacking. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve had the opportunity to write and give a message, to share the gospel with someone, to share with a group or even friends what the Lord’s teaching me, or even something as simple as pray for a group. Every single time any of these opportunities was presented to me it was the Lord asking me to walk in faith in such simple ways but more often than not I chose not to walk that out. The reality of that hit me like a ton of bricks.
A part of me wanted to have the “bigger” opportunities like sharing the gospel or to give a message; but I wasn’t being faithful with the little opportunities I was given so why on earth would the Lord give me more that I wouldn’t be faithful in. I had been asking the Lord to give me more opportunities to step out in faith and be bold and the reality was even before I asked he’d been giving them. He’s been giving me opportunities all of my life, I was just so focused on looking for bigger ones I didn’t see the little ones right in front of me. If I asked my friend to pray over our meal and they refused then why would I ask them to give a message? I know this sounds kinda harsh but it’s honestly true, there’s so many opportunities that the Lord gives us every single day that we just walk right by or pass up. We get caught up waiting for bigger things that we miss all the little ones he gives us. We pray for opportunities and for more but if the Lord doesn’t answer our prayers the exact way we expect (which he almost never does) then we miss it. Another big thing that the Lord has revealed to me about being faithful is being faithful in convictions.
Like I’ve said previously, since being here the Lord has been convicting me of a lot of things, not all of which may seem super big or bad. There’s a lot of areas that I’ve seen this play out but let me give you an example with my phone. The house that we’re currently staying in has WiFi and let me tell you that’s a rarity on the race but because of that WiFi can become very addictive very fast. So the Lord began with a simple conviction of not looking at my phone until I’d spent time with him in the morning seems simple enough right? Well as soon as I started walking in that conviction he started calling me even higher and I began to feel convicted about my screen time. I felt like the Lord was telling me that my screen time should never be more than the amount of time I spend with him each day. Now that conviction is a little harder to walk out but as soon as I started walking that out the Lord began to bless the time I spent with him even more. More than that, the longer I walked out that conviction the more that I started to easily spend way more time with the Lord than on my phone and my desires started to shift. This is just one area that the Lord has really been convicting and calling me higher in but there are so many others. He’s been convicting and calling me higher in everything from the tiniest action of making sure I wash my dish to my words and the thoughts that I allow to dwell in my mind.
Now I realize I’ve kinda talked about a lot of different things in this blog and I really hope that I didn’t lose you along the way but I’ll try to summarize some of it quickly before I end. The Lord has shown me what it really means to be walking faithfully in every opportunity (big or small) that he gives me. He’s also been revealing to me what it looks like to walk in a higher conviction and the blessings and fruit that come from that! He has been teaching me to walk faithfully in the opportunities he’s giving me and the convictions he’s giving me. There’s so many more things that I want to say. So many more stories and testimonies of what he’s been teaching and showing me; even just in these areas, but I think it’s time to wrap this up.
I apologize for such a long blog but I thank you for taking the time to read it! I would encourage you to ask the Lord to reveal any areas or opportunities that he’s given you that maybe you aren’t being fully faithful in. Ask the Lord to call you into a higher conviction and then actually take the steps to walk in it; it’s truly such a joy and blessing to walk in high conviction. If you ask with an open heart and open hands he is always faithful to answer it!
If you have and questions or wanna hear more message me or leave a comment. I’ll have WiFi for another week or so and would love to share more about what the Lord’s taught me or maybe hear what he’s taught you. Thanks for all the support!
Love,
Emilee
Leave a Reply