A Letter I Wrote Last Year....Maybe It Still Has Value?

The last few summers, I have thrown out a spiritual challenge to my family.  You might know by now that I get excited about intentional living. I love asking God to do a new work in my life.  Even if it means I need correction and discipline.  Who wants to stay in a place of sin, mediocrity or disobedience?  Not me.  I love setting goals.  I get re-energized by a fresh start.  I never think we have to save this only for New Years' time.  Every season is an opportunity to start fresh.  (Actually, every day is!)

Last summer I wrote a letter to some kids I love (a few of mine and a few others) who were spending their summer serving God at camp.  Eventually, I shared it with the women who read my offerings.  I wondered if it would be worth sharing here this year.  You can be the judge. I've posted it below in hopes that maybe you'd be interested.  Be encouraged to know that each of the kids agreed to the challenge and I know God blessed them for it.  Maybe it will energize you?  Give you something new to strive for?

Tomorrow I will post the new challenge for this summer which we started this week.  Feel free to join us in it.  If you do, would you let me know -so I can pray with you through it?  That would make my day!

Here goes:

"Dear (insert your name here),

So, I was thinking about you this morning on my walk and praying for you and your summer adventure at camp.  I was also thanking God for some changes He’s made in my life recently that I didn’t think possible, or at least probable.  Yet, I find myself changed, grateful and energized.

Do you ever look at things in your life that cause you regret or defeat and wonder if you’ll ever stop doing that thing or if you’ll ever mature past it or if it will never be “an issue” again?  I certainly have.  Then somehow I forget about it and continue in the same pattern of “lesser living” not really believing I will ever be free of it.  But sometimes, I take action and really seek God about it. 

I always seem surprised when sometime after that I see it in my past, no longer an issue and I thank God.  But it makes me wonder if we just open ourselves up to a bigger picture of God and His abilities and dreams for us, if He would accomplish so much more than we are currently expecting or imagining?

I know you have been challenged and likely have given God your summer already, but what if you made it a daily practice to believe God for “more than you can imagine” Him doing in your life?  What if you got to the end of the summer and one or more of those things I mentioned above were in your distant past and you emerged changed?  And what if you got to the end of the summer and found yourself walking closer to God than you ever have?  Now that would be reason to celebrate!

One of my favorite ways to be proactive is to write these intentions out and look at them often, praying them back to God.  Little by little, God does the work of renewing my mind through this practice.  I thought I’d throw a challenge out to you to do the same.

These verses come to mind:

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  Isa. 43:18-19 (wilderness and desert perhaps being the things we want to shake but may be obstacles)

OT: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him.” Isa. 64:4

Or if you like the NT version better:

NT: “But, as it is written, “..no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”  1 Cor. 2:9

If you want the kind of life change and experience with God this summer, why  not read these verses everyday during your quiet time or before you go to sleep (or both!) and believe Him for the outcome He has in mind?  Let your imagination run wild remembering that He imagines so much more!

If it’s o.k. with you, I’m going to pray these verses for you (and for me too!) and look forward to an amazing harvest for us all this summer. Living for Christ truly is the only thing satisfying in this life, so why not crank it up a notch? One thing I know for sure, God never leaves any effort to get closer to Him on our part to go unnoticed or un-blessed.  So, be aware and be looking for Him, "Do you not perceive it?"  Believe and perceive!

With deep love,

Mom

Friends, consider yourself invited to join in.  I hope you take it on.  Why not?  Let’s be farmers this summer…plant the seed of the Word early in the summer (and throughout) and then wait for the harvest.  Don’t forget about it – believe and perceive – always looking for what God is doing in your life.  Don’t forget to praise Him along the way."