the climb is worth it

       Back in Guatemala my team leader, Abby, had a vision of me climbing a mountain. She said, “you’re so close to the top but you still have a little ways to go, and it is one of the longest, most frustrating, and hardest things you’ve ever done.” To climb the mountain, it would be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but the view at the top would be so worth it. Well, just this past week that vision came back to my mind but I was standing at the top of the mountain. I had this thought during our squad worship night, and one of my friends Bree came up to me and said grace the Lord just gave me an image of you and I felt like I needed to share it with you. She said, “I could just see you at the top of a mountain with a 360 view of everything around you. You are just looking at all of Gods beauty and everything that he’s done in your life. Lining up the mountain are all the people who have impacted your life in some way, since you were born. They are all holding hands and looking up at you saying how proud of you they are. You are closer to God than you ever have been and you just can’t help but be with him.” Right away when she told me this I was like no way. The Lord had just put that on my heart and I have never told you about the vision that Abby had of me back in guatemala.

       At that moment I thought to myself, how close am I really to God? And what is he trying to tell me through this vision? Going into the next week I really had open hands and an open heart for what the Lord was going to teach me because I just got the biggest confirmation that I am truly so close to him and I don’t need to doubt that. 

       My team and I were just in the kitchen talking and Naomi, one of the girls on my team, was just asking us all of these questions about our relationship with the lord. What is he teaching us, what is a lie the enemy is putting in your head, what do you want the Lord to teach you this next week, etc. The space was so open to be vulnerable and opened a whole lot of prayer over each other. Let me tell you one thing, if you take anything away from this, PRAYER IS SO POWERFUL. I asked for prayer over my thoughts, that the enemy wouldn’t grab ahold of my thoughts and twist them into lies that are against the Lord’s promises. I asked for prayer that I would learn more about God everyday and that He would teach me new things. And WOW did He really pull through with that. This week has been incredible. My quiet time with the Lord is so special, and I get excited to wake up early in the morning to spend time with Him. Everyday my team and I can’t stop singing the same worship song because we listen to it so often, praise the Lord honestly. I spend time in the prayer garden everyday with my friend Ava, and we talk with the Lord! It has seriously changed my days. We started memorizing scripture everyday and are constantly repeating it to each other so we won’t forget! I am so overwhelmed by the Lord’s goodness. 

       Last night, we sat around the dinner table as a team and we got asked, what is the biggest thing the Lord taught you this week? I was the last to share and for some reason my stomach dropped and my hands started shaking before I shared. The enemy really thought He was going to make me hold back what the Lord has taught me this week. I started crying. This week has changed my relationship with the Lord. He has taught me that if I truly spend genuine time with Him every single day of my life it’s going to change my outlook on everything. At the beginning of this week i prayed this to the Lord in my journal,

“God I pray that I never grow tired of worshipping you. I pray that I never forget to praise you everyday and learn new things about your character everyday. God you are worth every word that comes out of my mouth. So I pray that everything that comes out of my mouth is glorifying to you.” 

       I can look back on that prayer now and say wow God you exceeded answering my prayers. It gives me the chills just thinking about it. I finally feel truly so close to God. It’s just me on the mountain top just so in awe of who God is. I finally understand what it looks like to live a life worthy of knowing the creator of the heavens and earth! Getting to this point really was hard, frustrating at times, and felt like the hike to the top was never going to end. But I can tell you now that every single tear I’ve cried, every question I’ve wrestled with, and every fight against the enemy was worth it. It’s worth it to get to the mountain top where all I can see is God’s beauty and all of His goodness. 

       Thanks God. Thank you for a new team that has been nothing but encouraging and has pointed me back to you every single day. Thanks God for the friends you have placed in my life that can intercede on behalf of what you want me to hear. Thanks God for surrounding me with mountains, so that everytime I look out the window I remember how faithful you are to me. Thanks God for the ability to pray and talk to you.  

       I pray that I never take advantage of my relationship with the Lord and never stop being grateful for it. God help me to live every waking second with you and to never grow tired of worshipping and praising you. 

Down below is a picture outside my kitchen window! 

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-grace:)