Our Youth Ministry is currently on a series called Fearless and the goal of this series is to build faith in the hearts of the students so they may live a life of obedience to God’s word, be bold enough to believe for the impossible, and have the faith to overcome every obstacle that they would encounter throughout this year.
I met with my coaching group last night and I felt it necessary for us to discuss the preaching from last Friday where our Youth Pastor talked about Abraham’s faith which can easily be summed up by these verses:
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
– Hebrews 11:17-19
For documentation purposes.
The last time we met, we talked about what we are believing God for this year and prayed together claiming that this is going to be a year of breakthrough. Last night, we wrote a different set of faith goals.
It took us a few good minutes to write down areas of our lives where we are convicted to have discipline in or things/ways/beliefs/thoughts that God wants us to let go of and surrender to Him. We decided to gather all our notes and stored it in one container and then prayed that God will give us the grace to obey Him throughout the year. We agreed to go back to the things we’ve written at the end of the year to see how we’ve done. This time, our faith goals weren’t something we want to have or accomplish for ourselves. Our faith was that at the end of this year, we would see how He has given us the grace to change what needs to be changed and let go of what needs to be let go of. Our goal was for us to not only grow in character and in faith but also that we would grow to be more like Him.
You only have to look at the picture above to conclude that the activity we did last night was fun and easy, but really, it wasn’t. It’s hard to admit that you need discipline in an area of your life and it’s harder to admit that there is something in your life that you have to let go of. But I think the hardest part would be that we have, at that moment, relinquished control over our lives and say, “Lord, whatever it is that You need to take away, please do so. Only give me the grace to withstand the process.”
I’m wrapping up this entry with a take home I got from the preaching last Friday: Our relationship with God is far more important than all the material things and fulfilment of promises and breakthroughs combined. We only need to have Him and we have everything. Thus, if there is something that we are to pursue, it is and should only be Him.
I’m proud of the girls for taking that step of faith and my prayer for everyone this year is that we would not only continue believing in Him for all the faith goals we’ve listed down but that we would also make it our goal to please Him in every way each and every day.
Random Musings 