Often times we need God to move us out of our comfort zone in order for us to see Him working in our lives. This is a difficult prayer for us to pray, especially for me. I'd like to share 3 clear examples from my life where this has been true.
This first was in 2009 on my first mission trip which was a disaster relief trip to Houston following hurricane Ike. Before committing to this trip, I can remember hearing a popular song from the Christian band Downhere called "Here I Am" with the lyrics taken from the prophet in Isaiah 6:8, "Here I am, Lord send me,
Somehow my story, is a part of your plan" speaking to me over and over as I would listen to it.
I began praying a theme verse daily for my upcoming mission trip, Joshua 24:15:
"Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve
...as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
During the mission trip, while working on the 2nd house that we repaired, God clearly revealed himself and confirmed his calling of me on this trip as part of his plan when I discovered the homeowners had this same Joshua verse beautifully painted on their front door. (Think about this: how often have you seen Bible verses painted on a front door? Would you paint a favorite verse on your front door?)
Another time that God spoke to me through His Word when I stepped out of my comfort zone was in 2013 on my second mission trip to Ensenada, Mexico. Our team had chosen Isaiah 41:13 as our theme verse:
"For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you,
Fear not, I am the one who helps you."
Our mission on this trip was to build a house for a family (our team of 45 actually built 4 homes). At chapel on the morning of our first day there, I remember the leader from Yugo ministries in his message encouraging us not to be afraid to step outside of our comfort zone. We arrived at the worksite and our team leader Pete called me over and told me that I would be working as "the cutter". I had never used an electric saw so naturally my fears began to take over, but I trusted in God's promise from our theme verse (I am the one who helps you), and I remembered the saying I've heard many times at church: "God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called."
The 3rd example of God speaking to me through His Word came during a time in my life 6-7 years ago -- and it was for a period of 17 months when I was going through an extended career transition when my job of 16 years was eliminated. Again, it was a time where I had lost the security of a comfortable job and I was forced into situations where I had to lean into God more than I was used to, but thanks be to God, He used this time to grow me and show me how to persevere while drawing me into a closer relationship with Him. In growing me, I gained a greater appreciation for networking, valuing relationships, and being vulnerable in seeking counsel of others. In drawing me closer to God, I felt compelled to spend more time in my morning devotionals in reading and prayer as I read thru the Bible in a single year in 2010. I also was led to go through DownLine, which is a one-year intensive discipleship training. Through DownLine, I gained a greater understanding of our call from Jesus to make disciples, and I discovered my spiritual gift of teaching which opened my heart to finding my passion in volunteering in children's ministry. And, I truly experienced the feeling of God "closing the door" on opportunities that I felt were right while trusting Him to "open just the right door", which happened in April 2011. I could go on and on about the many experiences and emotions I felt during this time, but I know that the lessons learned through this journey will last a lifetime.
As for now, I anxiously look forward to seeing how God will work and speak to us, and through us, during our trip to Guatemala. For this trip, I felt a strong calling to be a part of this team back in February after I learned more about the trip, and God uniquely spoke to me thru a verse that was featured in a video on "The Gospel of the Kingdom" from the Bible Project, which is a ministry that supports reading and understanding scripture thru engaging videos which summarize each book of the Bible and cover various themes found throughout the Bible. The verse, Isaiah 52:7:
This verse also struck me at the same time I was studying the book of Romans in my weekly AMEN Bible study as we were in chapter 10, in which Paul quotes Isaiah in stressing the urgency of missions in verse 10:15: "How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!"
(In our study I also discovered this verse is echoed in Nahum 1:15)
This verse continued to speak to me as I've prepared for this trip. On May 1st, the morning of our first Guatemala team meeting, my daily Bible reading passage just happened to be from Isaiah 52.
Indeed, God truly speaks to us through His Word...and most specifically when we open ourselves and allow God to lead us to receive it.
