Google, What Does Yashab Mean?
You’re invited! Yes, you. I am going to be having a night of fellowship at my house when I get back. It will be August 16th. The invite will be included in this newsletter along with more details. But for now I just wanted to say there will be TACOS, but it still won’t be complete without YOU!
This week’s theme is so sweet, but before I get into it, I just wanted to share one more important note. I am getting closer every week to being fully financially supported, but I still need a bit more help. I have $780 left to raise, Praise God for His goodness, AmIRight?!
When I got here I had just gone through my Jonah season. I was swallowed up and spit out for not listening to God. Funny enough I did a skit of Jonah that week. I think that was even more confirmation of what the LORD was teaching me.
I was taught to surrender. I felt like Abraham surrendering Isaac. Giving the most precious parts of my life to God, knowing He could take it away, but also knowing that as a good Father, He doesn’t ALWAYS take it away. Either way His plan is greater.
Last week was a lovely refinement. Faith brought me to the fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. Scary, but He meets you there.
This week…. Mary and Martha. The past month I have been living out Bible stories I read as a kid. He is bringing me back to childlike-faith. I love how the Lord has appeared to me in a way that I would recognize it. I am an orderly person. If you know me, very organized. I like lists and mathematical equations. Every week He has culminated my experiences and my heart to one main correlating Bible Story.
This week was packed FULL of outreaches. Tuesday we did an outreach at a park that seemed desolate and turned out to be packed full of people. Wednesday we served at a midweek service. Friday we did an outreach at the beach; face painting galore. Saturday…guess what? MORE outreach (Praise the LORD). Sunday we got to serve at the the church. The LORD is so faithful. One of my prayer requests the first week was boldness, and He is so kind to answer. Instead of going into each outreach with anxiety, I felt a sense of peace and calm this week, despite how busy it was.
On Tuesday I got to share my testimony. As I prepared for it, I had to be mindful of the time it would take to be translated. I was able to shave it down and highlight the Scarlet Thread in my own life. I will share a bit with you, and if you have known me for a little while, you might recognize it. The story God gave me is a story of identity. I was always searching for my “purpose.” Trying to figure out who I was. I mentioned it in my newsletter a few weeks ago: “‘Who am I?’ Became ‘Here am I.’”
The testimony I shared was reflected back on Saturday during one of our outreaches. While walking around inviting families from the neighborhood, one particular house came outside and started a conversation. They said “We almost never open our door for people out here, but we felt like you guys had positive energy.” WOW. What a fun open door to walk through to be able to share about how that “positive energy” they feel is actually the Holy Spirit residing in us and operating through us.
I grew up in a Christian home. I was saved when I was six, and I truly desired Christ from a young age. I shared the gospel in my middle school and was made fun of for it. I told my parents I wasn’t being “spiritually fed” in the high school group and sought out a place where I could go more in depth with God. Despite all of that… I didn’t understand Jesus could be my friend. Christianity was still a set of rules I had to follow. I wanted to follow. But at the time, I was searching for my identity in religiosity.
I aspired to be a good gymnast and felt as though I always fell short. I tried out waterpolo and was told I still wasn’t enough. I broke both my wrists and realized how much of my identity I had placed on being an athlete.
If I can’t be an athlete, I will help athletes. I wanted to become an athletic trainer and my identity was placed on the grades I could get. COVID struck and school hardly mattered anymore.
Maybe I can get validation from relationships? I dated many guys, all for short periods of time, trying to find someone who would choose me even though God already had. Until I got broken up with.
I had a phase in which I was politically on fire, immediately followed by a hippie phase where I had to be grounded with the Earth. Adrenaline Junkie. Mountain Girl. Coach. Granola. Adventurer. Traveler.
Those identities failed me every single time. But God never did. He was always there. Leading me into new places to see Him in new ways. Opening my eyes to new things. And I still didn’t ask Him to give me a name. How silly to not ask the one who created me.
“But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
Isaiah 43:1
That family on Saturday didn’t notice that I had good grades in high school, or that I was down to earth, or that I like to snowboard. They noticed that we were filled with the Holy Spirit. That is our identity.
Yashab. On Saturday I was making a bracelet, and I couldn’t find all the letters I needed to make the words I was thinking of. So, I looked up the Hebrew word for “abide.” Google gave me “Yashab,” which means:
Beyond a simple physical action, the Hebrew definition holds much deeper spiritual and practical meaning:
Sitting / Settling: It refers to the physical act of sitting down, but implies permanence or taking up residence. It signifies planting yourself and stopping.
Inhabiting: It is frequently used in biblical texts for establishing a home, dwelling in a city, or settling into a land.
Abiding: Spiritually, it suggests remaining in a state of rest, or making a permanent home in a relationship or faith
On orientation night, the LORD reminded me of Ruth. How she sat herself at the feet of Boaz while he was sleeping, so that she might ask him for his help to save her and her family. The LORD reminded me of the woman with the Alabaster Jar pouring out the perfume on Jesus’s feet, worshipping. The next morning, our devotion was on Mary and Martha.
We were reminded that Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, but Martha got up and served. What’s wrong with serving? Nothing at all, but don’t let your service for the LORD distract you from being with Him in the first place. Be with Him and let your service flow out of that.
This week was full of service that could have easily distracted me from sitting at His feet. I have been SOOO worried about everything I have to surrender, and being refined, and all of this pruning that He is doing… it’s painful. But this week I was brought back to Mary and Martha. He is my comforter. I can sit at His feet and He would be MORE pleased than if I got up and served. Please hear me correctly when I say that. Sitting at His feet and being filled with His love WILL naturally spill out and then POUR out to the people around you. But leaving His presence to do so will never work. Sitting at His feet doesn’t prevent service, but it is what should sustain the service. I was trying to muster it all up, and I was running out. I want to abide. Yashab.
He is sweet. I get to sit with Him.
Prayer Request: We leave to fly to an unreached tribe this week. Prayer for safe travels and lives that would be forever changed.
Prayer Request: I have also applied to some jobs. Prayer that the LORD would open doors for work when I get home.
Prayer Request: Prayer over the next decisions I have in front of me to do the Missions Training School/Work etc.
SO that PARTY!! Here’s what’s up. I would love to have a gathering of my supporters at my house when I get back as a BIG thank you!! It would be August 16th from 4pm - 9pm. It will be a sweet time of getting to share all that I have learned, and open you up to the world I have been blessed to explore. We will have a time of worship and prayer over the nations. I’ll have Tacos, you can bring the sides :) I would love to share the vision, and even teach about some of the cultures I have gotten to go and experience. My heart would be so full to see you there.
Vision Sharing Party!!
I want to leave you with a quote from a book I read this week called, “The Pursuit of God."
“For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself…The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God”
-A.W. Tozer
I love you, and God loves you infinitely more,
Jadyn Burnett
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