“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen!”
– 2 Peter 3:18
“Growth.” The word that has always struck me with power. But it hasn’t been until recently that I have realized that it is a word that can only be defined in Christ. My life has recently been filled with Jesse attempting to let her heart grow in beautiful directions. Despite this beautiful intention, I slowly realized that I was not moving in a direction toward the Lord. If anything, I was moving in the wrong direction. A direction that did not clarify the definition of “Jesse,” but rather made it blurrier than it ever had been. A set of beautifully made, bare feet stuck in a place of wanted good intentions but unintentional attempts.
As we circled up last night at our session, eyes closed, a leader came and selected one member to step into the middle of the circle. We began to blindly, specifically pray for an unknown member of our 5 person circle. I happened to be that unknown member. Every heart faithfully listened to the Lord as He gave them words to declare or visions to communicate. Just as I thought I was simply listening to an array of beautiful statements, not directly set out for me, God made His attempt completely intentional. An unsure team member lastly spoke up with slight confusion but faithful surrender. She spoke that God showed her a mirror. That He wanted me to take the time to look in that mirror. Look at myself and into my identity of who I am. That He wanted me to know that I am still in there. That I am still who I have always been.
My unsure team member gave up her pride and her comfort to speak one minute of words that seemed immensely confusing to her, but happened to be the first words that truly spoke to me in months.
God has great intentions of letting us grow. You may even have great intentions of wanting to let yourself grow. But before you take another step, make sure you’re looking in the right mirror. The mirror that God is holding up for you. The one that shows you the identity that He made and prepared for you with spectacular intentions. The one that shows you the identity you’ve been trying to find inside yourself for ages upon ages. He’s standing in front of you, a mirror in hand, just waiting for you to take a look into the heart that He sees that you have. It is only then that we can expect ourselves to grow.
As we leave training camp tomorrow to fly ourselves over to Africa’s beautiful soil, I can’t forget to look into God’s mirror. My heart, you ask? Ready. Broken. Human. Confused. But, happily, slightly more identified. This mirror is not one that I can turn my back on. It is one that I am going to let continue to identify me with Christ’s intentions. I thank the Lord with all that I am that I can only, solely identify myself in Him. That I am not content being identified anywhere else. Never put His mirror down to pick up your own. I promise that the reflection He provides is much better than all the insufficient ones we can fathom.
Christ is and has been identifying heart after heart that has been crying out to Him.
Heart after heart that He is sending us to.
We are the warriors He is sending to answer their calls.
Don’t worry, Africa, we’re coming and we’re bringing His mirror with us.
