I’ve told this story a couple of times at this point, so if you’re one of my fellow Racers (or maybe Mom and Dad) bear with me because I feel like this is a blog worth writing. Also, so sorry once again for such a delay between blog posts. Hopefully, I will be able to get in one or two more within the next few days, just to update everyone on some of Swaziland and the beginning of South Africa.
Just before coming into Swazi, I got some feedback from John Teter. He said, “I feel like if you made reading your Bible, getting into a good place with the Lord, and making that a discipline for yourself would be extremely beneficial for you,” (or something with that level of eloquence). However, I did not take this advice immediately, and so I felt the repercussions of not listening to someone who was listening to the voice of the Lord.
Swaziland started off…hard. I felt extremely lonely no matter who I was with. So, to avoid this feeling I would go to a spot on my own and spend HOURS with the Lord. It was a beautiful time where (seriously) the wind showed me the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I delighted in reading His word and being with just Him. Finally, I felt Him tell me, “this feeling will pass.”
I don’t know why but I fell back into an ignorance of the Lord and my time with Him. Unsurprisingly, that feeling came back as well. I sat with the Lord in desperation and asked Him, “Lord how to I make this feeling go away? Show me through your Word.” He answered.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 says, “Thus says the LORD:
‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.'”
I committed this verse to memory and I now feel a pull each day to seek the Lord and His secret place.
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