Fear of the Lord

Hey hey! Last week we began our actual schedule for being here. We started with 6am runs as a school, so that was interesting…but by the end of the week wasn’t too bad! The weather has seemed to be getting a little warmer...or else I am just getting used to it! We started in with our lecture series on Fearing the Lord. I think for the first time I understand, to an extent, what this means. It too often becomes easy to take hold of things as if we are equal with God and not stop to think about how big He actually is and how powerful He actually is. One of the best ways I heard it described this week is that fearing God actually releases us from fear of anything else. Fear of God is not an emotional fear, but one of respect and reverence-and realizing God is GOD! He is in complete control. He controls whether or not I live another day! When we recognize this, it can release us from the emotional fear of worldly things. Complete trust in God. If you would have asked me before last week, I would have probably said I understood all of this and I was totally trusting God, after all I am in Australia completely out of my comfort zone, but that is such a small portion! It only took until about Wednesday to realize I still had (and have) a lot to learn. Our speaker for the week, Matt Dawson, had us write down what God thinks about us and then the lies we believe He thinks about us. This started the water works in for just about everybody in the room. I definitely realized I have not been viewing God for all of who He is. But we all agree it is good to be broken down so we can be built back up correctly in the areas we have been misled.  

We also had our first night of evangelism last Thursday night, and that was interesting to say the least. We went to a local mall and were supposed to go up to people and tell them about Jesus! Talk about being out of your comfort zone and laying down your pride! It went alright I suppose, but it was awkward to say the least.

Saturday was YouthStreet again! I learned to break dance, well like 4 steps to break dancing-it was so fun once we could get past cracking up laughing at how silly we probably all looked! Our dance team gets to perform next month for the YouthStreet fundraiser, so that will be fun. The crew (kids) are all super excited about that! Then at Live we had a wonderful time or worship and message. The crew were given a chance to go up the leaders to get prayed over about anything going on in their lives. This was so cool to see how many of them wanted prayer. I noticed a girl from our dance team kind of just standing back so I went and asked if she had anything I could pray with her about, realizing the worst she could say would be no. Instead she opened up to me about some fears and sadness that she has been dealing with. It was so awesome to get to pray for a teen I had only met twice and that she comfortable enough to share with me! The lesson I learned from this was sometimes people won’t come right out and ask for help or for prayer. It is good to be willing and look for opportunities. If I wouldn’t have asked, I would have missed out on that wonderful opportunity!

This next week’s topic is “Fatherheart of God” or as other YWAMer’s tell us “week of openness and brokenness”....bring it on! I am nervous, but also very excited to see what this week has in store. I am ready for some changes! God is good!

Thanks for all of the prayers and support-please continue with the prayers. Specific things to be praying over: a lot of people in our house have been sick and living in community is a catalyst for germs spreading! Also for this week in general as I’m sure a lot of us will be dealing with “junk”. I am finally not feeling like “I just want to be back home” I definitely cannot wait until December 19!!!! But I think I have been able to accept the fact that until then I will be here, and I am not sad about it! I honestly can’t tell you all how much it means to know I have such a great support system back home! Have a great week J

“Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakeable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29