God is so good!

It has been too long since my last update, but things have started to pick up here at the Institute.  So I’ll do my best to share all the things that God has taught me these past few weeks.  Two weeks ago Mitch Maher came and finished up our Bible Overview class.  It is so awesome to continue learning about how the Bible all fits together and to see how God fulfills the Old Testament promises in the New Testament.  We also started Precepts; we are doing a study on Abraham.  The first week of Precepts was especially neat for me because God really used the example of Abraham to teach me to trust Him.  Abraham was called by God to leave the land of his father and to go to the land that God would show him.  Abraham didn’t know where he was going; just that God was going to show him the way.  He went in faith.  That struck me because we had been working on our vision statements at the beginning of that week and I realized that I know what God has called me to and why He has called me to it but I have no idea what fulfilling my vision looks like, but that doesn’t matter.  I know what God has called me to do and I just need to follow His calling and trust that He will show me where He wants me in His timing.  God has given me a peace that I haven’t felt in a long time.  I know that I’m where God wants me to be and that while I have no idea what exactly my life will look like after this year, God knows and He will reveal it to me when the time is right.  Karen was talking about how we think it would be easier if we knew God’s whole plan for our lives but really, if Abraham would have known everything that God was going to have him go through, he probably wouldn’t have gone and aren’t we the same way?  So I will just trust that God’s timing is perfect and His will is better than my own. 

Last week we worked through the Truth Project.  I’m still working on wrapping my mind around that one.  But what amazes me is the fact that people cannot define truth or what is right.  The Word of God is truth and if we really believe that then why are we not sharing it with others.  One of the biggest questions was, “Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?”  That really hit home with me.  So often I feel like that which I know in my heart doesn’t transfer to my thoughts and vice versa.  But if we really believe that the Word of God is truth then why do we not live more radically?  Truth is not relative, it has sides, you either believe the truth or you believe a lie.  Another thing that hit me while doing the Truth Project is when we looked at Science.  Now if you know me at all, you know I do not like science, but I do love nature.  I love Psalm 19:1-4 where it talks about how the heavens declare the glory of God and Romans 1:18-20 where it says that God has made it plain to us since the creation of the world.  Whenever I see nature, especially the stars, I cannot even fathom that there isn’t a creator.  There is so much more that we talked about with the Truth Project, but again, I haven’t even wrapped my mind around half of it and I have like 7 pages of notes from it so yeah. 

This past week we’ve been learning about marriage and relationships.  It’s been a really neat week of learning but also hard in some ways.  I’ve realized lately that I need to get better at guarding my heart and it has been a little hard for me to do that this week while talking about one of my greatest desires in life.  But again, I know that God’s timing is perfect and His will is better than my own.  I will be faithful where I am in whatever state He has me.  God is all I need and is the only thing that completes me.  I have learned some awesome things though; things that I can put into practice now in order to become more like Christ.  Some things that I need to work on is not believing the lies of the devil, to work on taking every thought captive and replacing it with God’s Truth, to not fear confrontation but to learn to handle it correctly.  There is so much more but I don’t want to ramble or bore you guys. 

This Sunday I’m teaching at Kid’s World for the first time, so if you could pray for me that would be awesome!  Also continued prayers in the financial aspect and that I will continue to trust God no matter what the circumstances.  I want to be able to praise God even in the pain and to know the peace and joy that He offers.  God is so good and I never want to forget that!  Thank you for your prayers and support, it means so much to me.  Please let me know if there is anything that I can be praying about for you!  Love you all and thank God for you!