Battles

I awoke to the mellow vibration of my cellular device. It was Tuesday; yesterday. Slowly getting out of bed, I silently prayed in my thoughts that God would fashion our day according to His will and teach us to further glorify His great Name! It was our first day of serving; going to an art school to paint the outside walls of classrooms. I was stoked.

After getting out of bed I quietly made my way into where the kids were sleeping, the living room, and awoke each of them with a pillow to the face (a great way to start the day). I urged them to commune with Jesus, shower, and meet in the lobby for some breakfast burritos and cereal. We then started our day by heading to the school to paint for several hours.

Once the painting was done (which was totally blessed by God because it wasn't too hot) we came back to the hotel, ate lunch, and went through our books "The Necessity of Prayer." Once our fulfilling times of learning about trust in prayer came to an end for the day we headed to the Tempe History Museum and walked around for several hours. The museum had insightful information as well as interactive exhibits such as a greeting card maker and a real T-series model car. Once done at the museum we started our trek home in which I grilled up some delicious burgers and dogs on the grill (I'd have to say I'm a rockstar at grilling).

When all were filled with delicious cooked ground beef patties we headed down to the Mad-Cap Theater and Mill Avenue to do some street evangelizing and promotion of the upcoming event, "The Stand." Some great opportunities and stories came up throughout the night such as one group being able to buy a man some dinner and pray and talk with him. The whole experience made me feel somewhat like Jeremiah in which there was a fire in my bones to preach the gospel. Such a great opportunity for us to step out of our comfort zones and serve Jesus.

But then today came, a day in which our faith would be tested and God would be further revealed to us in ways we wouldn't ever expect.

Today started like all the other days: Quiet times, showers, and breakfast. Once done doing our necessities we read more of our prayer books. Today it was over "Desire and Prayer."It really spoke to all of us how Bounds writes that prayer without a full desire of God is displeasing to Him. I challenged my group to come before Jesus and ask for more fire in their hearts and souls.

At the end of our great discussions we packed up and headed to the Mad-Cap for opportunity to serve. Little did we know that the enemy was ready to attack us in the best way possible, according to his strength, which is, of course, nothing compared to Jesus. Soon enough one attack after another came upon the students and leaders. By the end of the day we could sense fear surrounding our hearts; but we wouldn't let it affect us because our Lord is stronger than any force of evil. The encouragement that helped me stay strong throughout the battle in front of us was 1 John 4:18 where John states that perfect love casts our all fear; that fear is not from God and not of God. We trusted and prayed to Jesus and He came through and gave us all the peace we needed. Before I knew it we were all outside the theater on our knees with hands lifted high praising the Lord, crying to Him, and trusting in His faithfulness.
He brought us together.

Today we learned a lot. We saw that serving Jesus will cause the enemy to seek and attempt to destroy our mission. We learned that Satan doesn't necessarily want us to hate God, but to forget God (thanks for the insight, Richy). But most of all we learned that God is faithful, good, just, sovereign, and powerful. Nothing is clearer in His Word that He wants to give us the desires of our hearts, that He's willing and able to provide for us. We are encouraged tonight by what we've learned throughout our daily spiritual warfare.

"Trust in the Lord, lean not on your own understanding and in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct Your paths."

Keep the team in your prayers. Good night and God bless~