Joyful Dependence
As you know, my word for the year is depend. Throughout my walk with him, God has given me opportunities to depend on him. In college, I learned to depend on God for wisdom when speaking to agnostics, hostile atheists, and seekers. As a new career woman, I learned to depend on God for victory over anxiety. As a plain-ole-disciple of Jesus, I am learning to depend on Him by memorizing more scripture this year than I ever have before. But never have the opportunities to practice dependence on the Lord been more abundant than in this season of my life: new to motherhood and preparing for the mission field.
Although I often fight it or whine through it, I see now that God is fostering a heart of joyful dependence in me as we wait for God to build our partnership team. I know that one of the lessons of this season is that what is accomplished is not my own doing. We might make phone calls, write prayer letters, give church presentations, but God is building the team. As I wait for Him to do it, I pray. I pray for the people I know are meant to be on our team, and I pray for the ones I don't yet know. Then, when we meet them, God has already answered my prayers. One of our partners had supported a missionary to Italy previously, and had been praying about where to put that support once it became available again. Others have been job searching, and I pray for them often. I pray they might experience the same joyful dependence the Lord has given me.
Our field is going to be much, much more discouraging, challenging, and even pressure-filled than prefield. We go to our home church often, we speak the language, we live in the same home we made before God called us. When I battle the enemy on the field, he'll use those things against me. But I will remember the Lord's faithfulness to me while we waited, and I will depend on the Lord (hopefully with joy) for deliverance, answers to our prayers, and courage.
I'm linking up with Christine over at Grace Covers Me today as she releases her book, The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart, and collects heart stories from church planting and ministry wives. Join us? Also, stay tuned for a giveaway!