God's heart for the world

I have always struggled with making decisions.

& answering the question,

"How do I know what is God's will,

versus my own?"

It is a complicated question.

But at DCC this year,

I think God might have brought me my answer

through Scott Nickel, who said it best.

Essentially, he told us,

That when our heart is aligned with the heart of God,

which God so incredibly and willingly reveals to us through His Word when we ask for it,

We can actually trust the desire of our heart,

to be aligned with His will for our lives.

Now, lets rewind a minute:

This does NOT mean that we can trust EVERY desire of our hearts.

We are still sinful & we still succumb to the desires of our flesh ALL the time.

BUT, when we study God's Word,

& compare what we know

to what is true of God himself,

we can then, 

through the power of God's Spirit in us,

trust that the desire of our heart is aligned with His will.

I think he gave a couple of great examples for this.

I'll do my best to share them...

He shared that before he moved to CO,

he had two incredible ministry opportunities laid out before him

both decisions, he believed,

would have blessed their family,

and been aligned with God's will.

The options were:

stay put and do ministry where they were

or move to Denver, CO.

Scott shared that because of what he knew to be true of God,

he was able to confidently trust the desire of his heart,

& choose where he 'wanted' to go,

so they went to Denver, CO.

The second example:

(would be what NOT to do)

A guy in Scott's church came up to him after service,

and was telling Scott about this wonderful Christ loving lady,

he met at the office & wanted to pursue.

Scott didn't see a problem,

& asked the guy why he was sharing all of this,

if she was really a wonderful Christ loving lady.

The guy replied,

"well is it a problem that she's married?"

….

Allow me to summarize:

YES. that is a problem.

If you don't believe me,

look it up.

So having said all of this...

I have a strong desire to serve the Lord this summer in East Asia.

& I am SO STINKIN' EXCITED about it

So far, the Lord has really been opening doors,

& pushing me towards this awesome opportunity.

& while it has definitely required

and will continue to require,

a LOT of Faith

I really believe that He is going to continue to do so!

Listed below is what I have found in His Word that is driving my heart!

Please pray for me, & for this amazing opportunity,

that the Lord would continue to have His way in my life,

to reveal His will for my life to me,

& that I would continue to step aside & let Him lead.

Most importantly,

Please pray for the people of East Asia.

God is already doing really big things there,

& will faithfully continue to do so!

Here are some of the verses I found this week!

I underlined what stood out to me most from each,

& italicized how they make me think about Jesus.

Send me, I'll go:

Luke 10: 2 - He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

The path of life is to follow Christ wherever He may lead; I desire so much to have a heart after God's own heart; You are my joy and my portion forever:

Psalm 16:11 - "You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy, at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

ALL nations:

Matthew 24:14 - "And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!"

It begins and ends with Jesus:

Ephesians 1: 7-9 - "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ."

In my opinion, this one doesn't really seem like an option:

Mark 16:15 - "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

The Great Commission:

Matthew 28: 18-20 - And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Revelation 21:4 - "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”