Living the Journey

As a child, I felt a lot of rejection from my family. Though they showed me lots of affection, they were very busy with many other things. I sought for that affection in other ways, lost my trust in my Dad, and became very independent and rebellious. I told myself that I was tough enough to make my way in the world and refused to ever cry or talk about my problems. Pain built up because I had no way to let it out in a controlled fashion. I became bitter, felt rejection easily, and reacted to my sister and my parents.

I came on the Journey and promised myself I would not change. When I arrived I looked for people like me, but God gave me a team with strong godly girls who pulled me up. One night we watched the Father’s Love Letter. I was trying not to cry when my friend encouraged me to be open with God. I prayed with her and then felt the Lord prompting me to go talk to my sister, who is younger then I. We were able to resolve deep-rooted conflicts and I was free to surrender to the Lord the biggest thing that was competing with my love for Him. I now have a new freedom and sense of fearlessness!

~ Hannah
June 2008 Girls Journey

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At the beginning of the week I began praying and asking God to give me the two desires of my heart which were to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to ultimately honor my Daddy. In my mind I thought that if I could learn how to truly honor my Daddy, then he would love me more and show more affection to me.

As the week went on, I started to study my pride and selfishness and really ask God to reveal those shortcomings to me. As I searched God’s Word and daily prayed that God would bless my Daddy, I asked Him to give my dad the desire to pursue me and have more open love towards me and better communication. God suddenly turned the light on and I realized that I was asking for these things out of selfishness.

The next night we watched a powerful video called “The Father’s Love Letter.” God really spoke to me through the video and showed me that no matter how much affection my earthly father expresses or doesn’t express to me, my Heavenly Father will always love me more then anyone else in this world. I am now able to humbly bless my Daddy in knowing that if I give all of my love to God, He will give some of it back to my Daddy to love me with.

God has truly used this situation to strengthen my love and personal relationship with Jesus and even with my Daddy. I now have the freedom to love my Daddy without the selfish desires of trying to gaining his love in return, and ultimately focusing on loving the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength.

~ Joanna
June 2008 Girls’ Journey

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On Monday, a group of 26 guys headed up to the Northwoods to seek the Lord. Pray that the Lord would pour out His Spirit on the group and cause them to return rejoicing in the goodness of God!

“Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.” I Chronicles 16:10

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Most of us have heard the expression “nobody is perfect.” Yet Jesus gave us the command to “be perfect.” He made it even more precise by saying, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). How is this possible?

In the context of this command, we have its explanation. When we make eye contact with another person, we are to express the same warm, loving, enthusiastic greeting that we would show our best friend. This requires a cleansing of our hearts from all prejudices and judgment of outward appearances.

Remember that we have only one opportunity to make a first impression on each person we meet. That first impression is made in the split second that we first make eye contact.

Many people have low self-esteem. They reject certain unchangeable features and expect others to reject them as well. They live with the hurts of past rejections and are extremely sensitive when anyone shows signs of further rejection.

If they see us looking at them with a blank stare or frown, they will just assume that we are looking down on them, judging them, and rejecting or even despising them. However, if we give them a warm, loving smile and an enthusiastic nod of greeting, they will be surprised, encouraged, refreshed, and open to anything we want to say to them.

This “perfect” greeting communicates the love that God has for everyone: “For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

The Greek word for greet (salute) indicates an embrace in the arms of our hearts. In order to do this consistently, we must develop hearts full of love for all people with the compassion of Christ and the desire to meet their needs.

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It is so vital to stay in the Word daily and to meditate on Scripture…not just read, but meditate. I’ve been talking to my dad a lot and he’s been keeping me accountable. It is amazing how much freedom one gains when they surrender areas of their life that they do not want anyone to know about. Those secret sins are what keep people in bondage. Even those who are Christians who do not surrender to authority will remain in bondage to sin.

I’ve grown up in ATI and have heard the message spoken about how important it is to surrender to your authorities on several occasions, but refused to let the Lord use it in my life. I thought I could make it through on my own without my parents. I always told myself, “It’s just me and God…just trust in Him.” Satan wanted me to believe I was all alone and that I should not trust the authority of my parents because it would make me look like a horrible sinner, which is exactly what I am anyway. Satan had me believing that I could break the habits on my own. I truly thought I could separate myself from my sin without assistance, yet the whole time I was falling deeper and deeper into more sin.

But I forgot the rest of the puzzle that God commands of us, so no matter what I did or said the sin weighed even more heavily on my soul. The last piece is complete surrender to Godly authority. In Romans 6 Paul said, “What shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” I understood this with my mind, but not in my heart, and therefore could not apply it to my life. But now, in freedom from sin because I am under the authority of my parents, I have the freedom to live in the grace that God provided.

~ Drew
June 2008 Guys Journey

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I came on the Journey not really knowing if I had anything major that God could take care of. I couldn’t recall any sins that I’d kept secret from my parents, so I thought these ten days were going to be a lot of little changes and give me a hunger for God’s Word. The first few days of the Journey, I found myself having a love for God’s Word like I’d never had before. The day of delighting in the Lord came and I felt like something was missing that God was convicting me of, but I still could not see entirely.

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~ Camara
June 2008 Girls’ Journey

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