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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Confidence in Him

We are getting nearer and nearer our departure time.  Our days are filled with so much activity.
There are so many details to attend to.  Have I ordered homeschool materials for the next three years yet?  Do I have shoes for the boys?  How do you buy shoes for growing boys three years in advance?  What should I bring from home?  How will I get it there and will it actually show up?  There are funds to be raised, going away parties to plan, and goodbyes to be said.  So, so many goodbyes to say.

We get to the end of most days and wonder what happened with the time, but, invariably, we feel good about what was accomplished and thankful for the friends we saw that day.  God has been so good to give us time with friends and family each day.  In fact, God has been so good...Period.

It is hard to attend to everything without thinking about our end goal.  That goal being to leave all that we know and love to go to a far away place that holds our hearts.  We are choosing this.  We choose it confidently, and that makes all the difference, doesn't it?

We know that our new life will be filled with challenges and dangers that we cannot yet fully imagine, but we also know that God has a work for us there.  I feel so protected and cared for by the Lord.  He has overwhelmed us by His generosity and faithfulness.  His gestures of love are so extravagant and there is no denying His plan for our life.  I am confident of the path that He has laid before us, and it is that confidence that keeps me going when I am afraid or sad.  Of all of His good gifts, this confidence and His assurance is what I most treasure.  Without it, I doubt that I could be obedient to His plans for us.  Our obedience is only the result of perfect peace and absolute certainty of a faithful God who always does what He says He will.

We feel truly blessed to serve the Lord in this way.  Because we have no hope of accomplishing this task without Him, we get to fully surrender each day into His hands.  Each step is taken at His good pleasure.  Each day He asks us to do something impossible and we step out knowing that only by His grace will we succeed.  And as the hymn goes, "He never failed me yet!"  We serve a God who is faithful all the time.  He will keep His promises.

For all of our friends and family who fear for us in this transition, please know that we find great comfort in the confidence the Lord has given us.  We are so thankful for your love and care for us.    We are blessed by your relationships.  We ask that when we have hard days of doubt and fear, that you will listen to us patiently, but also remind us of the confidence we have in Him.  Encourage us to stand strong in the faith.  Somedays will be especially difficult and we will need that reminder.  Remind us that His love is perfect and that perfect love drives our fear.  Please speak with boldness the power of the risen Lord into our lives, not the doubt and fear that spews forth from Satan, the father of lies. There is nothing that He would like more than to have well-meaning loved ones, in their fear, keep us from the unreached Tajumulco Mam people.  Please pray for us and lift us up in these ways.

So, at the end of the day, know that we are excited and nervous, we are sad and scared, we are busy and distracted, but most of all, we are confident.  And, thankfully, our confidence in Christ trumps all of those emotions.


Hebrews 10
22  let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings,...
23  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
24  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,
25  not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 11
1  Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.