Today was a day of ridiculous and overwhelming encouragement. It started with Papa Ken time, then breakfast, and then breakfast clean-up. I really love being in the kitchen! It makes me feel at home and useful! After we’d finished, we went down for the next chapter of “The Furious Longing of God” – ‘Healing’. If Jesus is inside of us, and we are to walk as He did, then healing is what we should be doing! Manning says, “Lodged in your heart is the power to walk into somebody’s life and give him or her what the bright Paul Tillich called “the courage to be”. Can you fathom that? You have the power to give someone the courage to be, simply by the touch of your affirmation. This might mean that you need to reach out a hand of reconciliation to someone you’ve estranged. It might mean making a telephone call to somebody with whom you’ve had a conflict. It might mean making a long-distance call to someone in your family that you haven’t talked to in years. It might mean inviting a work colleague, whom you can’t stand, out to lunch or dinner... And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love. Or not.” We need to treat our fellow human beings with dignity and love – this brings healing. How can they believe in the love of God if they cannot find any love in us? “A shrivelled humanity has a shrunken capacity for receiving the rays of God’s love.” The questions to consider are:
1. Ask the Father to bring to your mind one person in your life who has administered the healing touch of Jesus to you. Spend a few minutes in gratitude.
2. Now ask the Father to bring to your mind one person in your life who needs the same healing touch. Take some time and decide on a tangible way you can return the favour.
After we’d gathered again, we had a brief meeting with Melissa and Jonathan, giving us an idea of how the week ahead will look. Next we split off into guys and girls. Us girls stayed in the worship room, and pulled up the couches really close together so we could all gather around Mel. She started by saying there was so much we could probably talk about – all the usual things that come up when girls get together and chat! But what we ended up really speaking about was worth. She was saying that many of the things girls struggle with could be more easily solved if we had a clearer idea of our own worth, and were willing to stand up for it. I suppose it really comes down to understanding that you’re a daughter of the King... and not just saying that over and over to yourself, but really believing it. And really walking it out. It ended up being three and a half hours worth of girl-talk! But it was so necessary.
After lunch we broke up into collectives. There were four of us who shared something this week, and we did the same thing as last time – showering each other with encouragement and prayer. I shared the song I’ve written as a response to the postcard I got from Molly (one of our earlier collective assignments). It’s a picture of a waterfall. I wasn’t so sure about all of it... but I got absolutely overwhelmed by encouragement and love after I’d finished! Here are some of the things they said: it sounds like a song of victory – the kind of sound you would expect to hear at the beginning of a battle; rallying the troupes, and preparing the army for battle (like Joan of Arc, leading the charge). A song of deliverance, peace, healing and refreshing. When they prayed over me, some of the words that came was that I am not too much; that my gifting is not overbearing. My gift will not be abused or over-used; and making use of it (me bringing it out, sharing it) is not pushing myself ahead or trying to make myself seen. It is necessary and good for me to share it. This was all pretty amazing, because I’ve had many voices in my head telling me many (often contradictory) things... I’ll have to give a concrete example to make this clear. If, during a worship service, I feel I have a song to sing, this is usually what happens in my head: “I have a song to sing, I should share it. No, I shouldn’t, it’s probably not right, or the right timing. It IS right. But if I share it, I’m just trying to draw attention to myself, trying to steal the lime-light. So maybe I shouldn’t share it. But I SHOULD share it. But what if people are thinking ‘There she goes AGAIN!’? And I don’t even know if it’s right to begin with...” etc etc. YUCK. So those prayers hit the nail on the head. God is telling me that I’m not trying to share out of pride, or to try make myself look good (ha ha). That’s just not who I am. And I DO have a gift that needs to be shared.
Had to dash off soon afterwards to help with supper prep, and then clean-up again after supper. We got into our small groups again after supper, and what we did was... ENCOURAGE each other! :o) we went around the circle, and gave 5 minutes full of encouragement to each person. It was SO great! One of our group-members even grabbed a ukulele and sang his encouragement over a few people! The group said to me that I am very good at being a friend, and that I draw the desire to be a friend out of other people. I have a voice of healing, a voice that’s refreshing and good to listen to. There is lots of depth to me, and there’s more in me waiting to come out. God is removing my walls of fear, and releasing more in me. Beauty is evident through my life, and it comes from being rooted in God. I have a song of freedom to sing, a song that needs to be sung for others to hear. Fun fact: no one from my small group was in my collective earlier this afternoon... God’s great like that, repeating things to me that He knows I’ll need to hear a few times before they properly sink in! :o)
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