Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Oh, let the nations be glad
and sing for joy!
For You shall judge the
people righteously,
And govern the nations on earth.”
Psalm 67:3-4
Week TRES of Mexico has been three times more amazing than I could have ever expected! Throughout this week, God has been teaching me more about His love. He has taught me this through new relationships with nationals, teachings, books, and through the little things in life. Through the quiet times, He has been teaching me to just sit in His presence, and be filled by Him. He has taught me more of His grace and loving-kindness. He has taught me that it is not about rules and what we “should” or “shouldn’t” do. In Him, I am now set free from the law and there is nothing that I can do in and of myself to earn the gift that He has given me. He loves me as I am, and He wants to teach me and discipline me so that I can be sanctified and become more like Him. He is patient, gentle, and gracious. He is a loving Father.
I have learned to do things out of love, not out of obligation. As I look back into the past, I can remember doing many things out of obligation. In any of these times, I can also see that I was trying to work out of the flesh. And as a result, there was no fruit from these things. However, I can also look back at the times that I did things out of love and was filled with the Spirit and much fruit came from this.
I do not want to tell people about Jesus out of obligation, but out of love. Don’t get me wrong, it is a command that we share the gospel with others and make disciples (Matthew 18-20), but I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit when I share with others. I want to sit in Jesus’ presence and be filled with His love and joy, and serving in the freedom that He has given.
This week, I have also learned that missions is not the ultimate goal of the church, worship is. The ultimate goal is for all nations to praise God and give glory to Him forever. Wherever I go, I want to share Jesus’ love with people because my heart is burdened that billions of people today do not know the great love of God and they do not have a relationship with Him. I want to just meditate on His word and keep the fire burning for Him. I don’t want to stop learning and sharing until He takes me home. Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak.
Worship has to be the fuel and goal of missions.
A quote that Pastor Joel Garcia said to us in one of the classes really stuck with me,
“Fish swim, birds fly, and humans praise God.”
We can often ask ourselves “What am I good at?” or “What’s my purpose?”. The whole American mindset is to find what you are good at and become an expert in that. Imagine if we started living for our true purpose; to praise God. What if we fully believed that we had the single purpose of praising God, and we became an expert in that? What if we became experts in becoming a disciple and making disciples of all nations; studying His Word, spending time meditating on Him, interceding for people and the nations, singing hymns unto God, and being filled with the Holy Spirit constantly, moment by moment? Not just for an hour in the morning or once a week, but every day, moment by moment. Imagine how joyful, patient, peaceful, gentle, loving, satisfied, content, and gracious we would be. Imagine how different our lives would be. We don’t have to be in the sanctuary or at a church to worship God. We can worship Him at our workplaces, and throughout our normal, day by day lives.
If a fish stops swimming, it is not fulfilling its purpose. It will actually die. What happens when we don’t give our lives entirely to the Lord’s purposes? We will not experience the life that God has for us.
I am so amazed by how much the Lord is working in Mexico and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to be taught by all of the pastors and missionaries that have come. I can’t thank you enough for supporting and partnering with me. This trip has been life-changing and has really helped me to get a firm foundation in the Lord. He is teaching me things every day about Himself and He is stirring a passion for Himself in my heart. I have three more weeks here and I am so excited for everything more that the Lord is going to do here! I am praying for all of you!!
Praise Reports
-There has been continued unity in the team!
-We have been able to serve alongside the nationals & build relationships with them!
Prayer Requests
-Please pray for the unity of the team. Division in a team is a big way that satan tries to get in the way of God’s plans and mess everything up.
-Please pray that God would prepare the hearts of those that we will reach in the coming weeks.
-Please pray that those who have received Christ will grow strong in their faith and trust in the Lord.
-Please pray that God would continue to strengthen my faith, trust, and love for Him.