But the Bible clearly states that if you are still, and know that God is who he says he is, you will see that he is being exalted all around you, and you are invited into it.
I wish we had listened when people told us that this summer we were going to be attacked—hard. From the beginning, we’ve had team members get sick, go to the hospital, get in fights, get unbearably homesick, lose friends and family, and deal with other tough issues back home. I’m not going to lie; it’s been a rough ride. There have been several times when all of us have just wanted to give up and go home. And, yet, God has been who he said he is through the entire summer.
When I have stopped to truly sit in God’s presence and to allow him to refresh my spirit, he has shown me his power in this summer—eight kids coming to know the Lord, one man in his 80s coming to Jesus, one co-worker recommitting his life to Christ, and countless numbers of relationships formed where people have been able to see the power of God working through us. Who am I to question why we were all called here this summer?
One of the dramas our creative-arts team performs is called “In the Words of Satan.” It’s a song about the lies Satan feeds us on a daily basis to try to bring us away from the love of our Lord. But he will not tell us about the God of heaven who loves us, who yearns for us and the freedom of the truth and forgiveness that God offers. Why is it so easy for us to buy into these lies?
I’ve been praying that God would reveal to me the lies that I buy into each day so that I may know what is of Christ and what needs to be pushed out of my life, and it’s rocked my world. God has shown me through revealing the lies in my life the different lies that others around me believe in, too. It breaks my heart. That’s why God wants us to know who he is and to believe it and know it on a daily basis, because we are not up against anything that will go easy on us—not by any means.
Emily Gerloff, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, is serving with Go Now Missions in Orlando, Fla.
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