Listening

   

  Over the last year I have really been practicing listening to God.  It has been good because over the last few months I have had to rely on Him in a way that I never have before.  He is teaching how to release everything the world is telling me is normal or right.  I had to ask others for help to be able to come to Bolivia to be a missionary.  If I do this for the rest of my life, then I will have to rely on the charity and love of others to survive.  I will never be independent again.  The world also tell me that I am lazy and that I don't deserve or have the right to live this way.  God is telling me how much He loves me and charishes me for stepping out on faith. 
     Everywhere I turn, I am having to learn something new and not just in language. Everything has changed for me and I am becoming more at peace the more I embrace it.  I just finished Isaiah and started on Jeremiah this week.  It is good to read them back to back because burned Isaiah's mouth to purify him.  God chose a different approach with Jeremiah.  With Jeremiah, God put His words into Jeremiah's mouth.  He chose different approaches because they were different people.  Isaiah was bold and outspoken.  Jeremiah was more timid.  However, the message was the same.  We are to surrender our worldly selves over to die daily, so that that Holy Spirit can grow and make us strong even if the world looks at us like we are scum.  They will never understand and that is ok. 
     God just commanded us to be fearless.  That is something we cannot accomplish on our own.  I think I am a good example for that.  My parents tell me when I was young that I was afraid of everything.  Now, I live in a foreign country with no family.  I had no friends when I came.  All I had was the support of my mission and God.  God gave me everything I needed to be here.  He is giving me everything I need from day to day.  (That includes the people in my life.)

⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
And look on the earth beneath.
For the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness will not be abolished.

⁷ “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
You people in whose heart is My law:
Do not fear the reproach of men,
Nor be afraid of their insults.
⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
And the worm will eat them like wool;
But My righteousness will be forever,
And My salvation from generation to generation.”

Isaiah 51:6-8New King James Version (NKJV)