So tears of unspeakable joy seem to be a daily occurrence for me these days. Barely a day goes by when I am not completely, unfathomably, gloriously overwhelmed by God's power and grace
It's strange to think that I'm now almost two thirds of the way through my time here. When I arrived and told people I was here for 5 weeks, they all said 'is that it?! That's not long enough!' And I thought '... er... 5 weeks is a decent stint of time actually...' I was wrong, 5 weeks is not at all long enough in a place like this.
I will begin by telling you all what the highlight of my week was:
Monday I was talking to a lass who'd been here exactly a week, she was telling me how in just a week of cold turkey she hadn't craved a single thing that she was previously addicted to, not even a cigarette. How she felt a joy, peace and warmth in her heart that she hadn't felt in nearly ten years. She said she knew that can only be God - so she's now given her life to Jesus! She's been here a week! Isn't that incredible?! I literally can barely get my head round that! I'd love to say that right there and then I was able to feed her all the right theology, take her through the gospel to make sure she knew what she was doing and calmly try to discern if this was a genuine commitment or not but I didn't. Instead I started to cry, and then she started to cry and we both sat there beaming with tears of joy running down our faces ruining both our composure and our mascara.
We had the privilege of receiving another new girl this week. As she came in, still sweating and shaking from her last fix I couldn't help but grin; After seeing all that God had done in other people in such a short space of time I couldn't help but be excited about what God is going to do with her, what the power of the gospel could do in her life!
We can so often underestimate what God can do and even what He can use. On Wednesday one of the quieter girls asked me about whether I'd always wanted to be a missionary, a question which naturally lead to me sharing my testimony. Although I don't really believe that there is such a thing as a dull testimony of how someone became a Christian, after a girl who used to be a homeless drug dealer called her own testimony 'boring' I kind of figured my personal testimony wasn't massively useful in this place. But after I shared mine she tearfully told me that so much of the stuff that God had brought me through and healed me of was stuff that she was really struggling with, I was able to chat and pray with her about it all. God can even use what many might perceive as a relatively bland 'minister's daughter' testimony in a place such as this.
All these things have lead me to thinking not only about the power of God, but also the love of God. I've been trying to meditate daily on 1 Corinthians 13, particularly verses 4-7. If you've ever been to a wedding you'll probably have heard these verses read out at some point during the service, so that's what people often associate these verses with, but this does not merely refer to the love between a husband and a wife; this is a call for all of us to have our very lives reflect the extravagant love of God!
Verses 4-7:
'Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; love is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; love is not irritable or resentful; love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.'I encourage you to read through that again and where you see the word 'love' replace it for your name. And make it your prayer, that you will become more like what the Bible says love is. That everything about your life will ooze love and therefore reflect the beauty of our Saviour. That's one of the things I'm praying for God to do in my life at the moment.
I've been singing 'Open Hands' by Matt Papa a lot since being at Betel, it's a song which has challenged me and brought me to my knees many a time, it sums up a great deal of what God has been reminding me of since being here:
To give unselfishly, to love the least of these
Jesus I'm learning how to live with open hands
All these treasures that I own will never satisfy my soul
Jesus I lay them at your throne with open hands
So I lift my hands, open wide, let the whole world see
how you loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last, I surrender all I am with open hands,
with open hands
To finally let go of my plans
These earthly kingdoms built of sand
Jesus at your cross I stand with open hands
As I lift my hands, open wide, let the whole world see
how you loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last, I surrender all I am with open hands,
with open hands
You took the nails, you bore the crown
You hung your head, your love poured out
You took my place, you paid the price
So ,Jesus, now I will give my life!
As I lift my hands, open wide, let the whole world see
how you loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last, I surrender all I am with open hands,
with open hands
how you loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last, I surrender all I am with open hands,
with open hands
with open hands
God is good all the time
God is good and that is His nature
Thank you for reading
God bless
Caris x
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