A Sweet Reminder

I have to preface this post by confessing that I don’t like to throw ANYTHING (especially school things) away. 

Recently (a couple of years ago) I went through my old middle school and high school English journals and tore out some entries that I wanted to keep and tucked them away in my drawer.  I completely forgot about them until I went home for Easter and realized they had fallen out of my drawer and were on the floor.  As I took time to read through these journal entries I wanted to keep forever, I was reminded of God’s faithfulness and how he has been working in my life from the time I trusted Him as Savior on June 24, 1998. 

The first thing I found was a written out version of my testimony written only a few weeks after I trusted Christ as Savior.   Reading it took me back to Wild Week youth camp….probably the most miserable camp I’d ever been to, but obviously the most memorable for me. 

Then I came across a short paper I wrote in 8th grade titled, “I Believe In…”  

“I believe in many different things, but there are a couple in particular…God, the bible, and prayer.

I have grown up all of my life in a Christian home and I was practically born in the church nursery.  Since I was young, people have always…God.  Also, they have told me that God sent his son to die on the cross for our sins.  As I began to get older, I began to understand more about him.  and now, I believe that god will take care of me and protect me. 

The bible is something else that I strongly believe in.  Every story in the bible is true.  From Adam & Eve to Jesus and the cross to Christ coming back. 

God makes promises in the bible that I depend on every day.  One of my favorite promises is the rainbow.  The rainbow is God’s promise that he would never destroy the earth and the people again.  God kept Noah and his family safe because Noah believed and trusted in God.  That is just one of the many promises. 

I can look for almost anything in the bible.  When I start to worry about my future, I read Jeremiah 29:11-13.  These verses say that God knows  his plans for you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Prayer is another thing I believe in.  The power of prayer is so overwhelming.  There is so much that can take place through prayer.  I know from experience. 

God, the bible, and prayer are just a few of the things I believe in.”

My sophomore year in high school, I had to write journal entries on a given topic for English class.  One entry talks about what I will be doing in ten years (which from the date I wrote it will be next January).  I talked about how I would be finishing up medical school and beginning my residency.  But the best part of it is that above all of the other things, I wanted to have a “good relationship with God”.  THAT was what was most important to me.  

The last journal entry I found was also during my sophomore year in high school.  And perhaps this is the one that means the most to me right now.  The prompt given by my teacher was “A Risk Worth Taking…” and this is what I wrote. 

“There are many risky things that can be done, but there is no risky thing more worthwhile than being a missionary.  In the Bible, God calls us to go and be witnesses in His name.  Matthew 5:11-12 says that those who are persecuted for Christ will have greater rewards in heaven.  God also says in Matthew 28:19 that we are to go and make disciples of all nations.  In places where Christianity is forbidden, people still need to hear about Him.  It may be risky, but God promises that He will always take care uf us.  We just have to have faith in Him that He will do what He said.  I take comfort in those words, and I have a peace in my life if I had to take that risk.  Everyone needs to know of Christ’s love, and how will they know about Him if no one tells them.  God wants me to be obedient to Him, and so I try to do what He asks of me.  So therefore, being a missionary would just be being obedient to Him.  Being a missionary is definitely a risk I would take if Christ impressed it upon me because it is worth taking.  After all, if you won’t take risks for Christ, then who would you take risks for.”

As I read through each of these pages, the Lord sweetly reminded me that HE has been at work in my heart for a long time.  My heart for the nations is something HE placed inside of me.  I am so thankful for the sweet gift of getting to see in written words a desire I have to make His name known….whether it was in school to my teachers by writing these papers/journals or to the nations by taking a risk and becoming a missionary.  I know the Lord’s hand is in it all, and I’m so thankful! 

Lord- may I never lose a heart to make your name known!