A couple of months ago I bought a new bike to take with me to southern Sudan. Up until today the tags were still on, the seat was still in the lowest position, and the tires did not have one speck of dirt on them. But now I live really close to the Green River Trial and have no more excuses. I also felt the Lord urging me to come and take a ride with Him, to the peaceful waters, quiet my mind and listen to Him. So with that I put on my warm clothes, my helmet of course, and was off.
The Lord never ceases to surprise me. He always knows exactly what I need to hear and leads my heart in the direction it needs to go. While I was riding two passages came to mind:
“The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Isaiah 58:11
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
Here I am about to leave the land of plenty and head to a sun scorched land. The Lord challenged me today to think and pray about what is and will keep me from being like a tree planted by the water? As I think about leaving the life I have grown used to in Seattle, it does not scare me to leave the luxuries of this place such as plumbing, 24 hour everything, comfortable homes, technology galore, etc. these things I am very willing to sacrifice. It is the relationships that I leave behind that are not as easy to hand over and trust the Lord to sustain. But through these verses the Lord continues to remind me that I need to have confidence in Him and even though at times I will feel the burns of the sun scorched land or the hunger pains in the seasons of drought, I do not need to worry as long as my roots are firmly planted in Jesus Christ, the stream that never runs dry, and who enables me to be a well watered garden.
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1 comment:
Hey Kim, another verse that came to mind for me while I was reading your post is Psalm 63:1 "O God you are my God earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."
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