This month, women from all over the world gathered to talk about, “what it would look like if we lived like Jesus.” I was able to live stream this event here in Malawi, even though it was the middle of the night! It was exactly what my soul needed. “The world around us feels like it is crumbling and almost nothing seems certain, until we look to Jesus and see that our Hope is very clear and certain. He didn’t just give us salvation—Jesus is our salvation and the example of what it means to live in the fullness of grace and truth. What the world needs is His redemption, the very redemption and hope that lives inside of us. Rather than shrink back, it is time to love like Jesus loved, serve like Jesus served, pray like Jesus prayed, and pursue holiness like Jesus pursued it.” (IF:gathering website) Jesus spoke to me through this.
Basically everything that the speakers talked about hit home in one way or another. One thing that has been my prayer for a while now is that I would do things with God, not for Him. Before coming to Malawi, my prayer was that it was God’s calling and not me dragging God where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. As I live life here, it can be easy to get in the mindset, for me at least, to think I am doing something for God. My prayer every morning is that I would go with God, because He is here and I just want to be used by Him, with Him. When I am teaching English on Saturdays to the children or when I am in a village preschool, doing what I am doing with God. Because really, can I do it without Him? As I step more and more out of my comfort zone and walk more and more in obedience, I am finding it easier to do things with Him instead of for Him. The first step for me was acknowledging that He does not need me but chooses to use me and that He is here already.
One more thing that really struck me was “There is a way I have been made to give away God.”-Jennie Allen. As I am settling into life here and figuring out my place, this was so encouraging to me. When I am who God has made me to be I am giving away God in my own unique way. Each one of us gives Him away in an unique way and knowing I only have to be who I was created to be is freeing. Change always seems to reveal where my identity has been outside of God and coming here was no different. I am pressing into finding out how to be myself here and be who I was made to be, and to give away God through it all.
So to answer partially, “what it would look like if I lived like Jesus”, is to love recklessly and give away God, walk in obedience and surrender, do things with Him, and to live from a place where I believe He is who He says He is.