Identity

Who are you? That is a question that a lot of people have a tough time answering. It's been coming up a lot in my time with God lately, so I figured I would share some insights.

Myself and a few friends are memorizing Romans 8 this summer, so I have been reading over it quite a bit. Verse 14 (don't worry if you are memorizing with me, I haven't memorized this far yet) says that if we are led by the Spirit of God that we are sons of God! I read that and I'm like WHOA! Because when I think Son of God, I think Jesus, and to put myself on that level is kinda tough, but then I have to stop and realize that I'm not on Jesus' level on my own accord, but because He put me there and that His Spirit is why I am considered a son of God in God's eyes. Paul then goes on to say that we have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but a Spirit of adoption as sons...here we go again, God is really driving the point home here that we are His family. Then down in verse 19 we are told that the creation itself longs eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God! When I read this I get really excited and something deep down inside me starts screaming like William Wallace before battle!

I get this picture of who God has created me to be, He has created a son, He has created a brother, He has created a man, and He has created a warrior. Looking at this person that God has created I get fired up, I want to live up to these things, I want to love Him as a son loves his father, I want to be a brother to those around me, I want to be what a man was meant to be, and I want to be a warrior for my King! Guys, when God created you, He created the same things! Spend some time asking Him how He wants these to be a part of your life. Ladies, obviously these things will be a little bit different for you, but God has a specific purpose for who He created when He created you too, so please do the same thing, spend some time asking God who you are in Him and what that means for your life. He promises us that He will bring the work that He has begun in us to completion. (Philippians 1:6)

Faith and Fish

How often do we worry about things that we need?

• Rent money
• A job
• New clothes
• Direction
• Words to say
• A boyfriend/girlfriend
• Good grades

In Matthew 14, Jesus is upset over the death of John the Baptist and He goes off to a 'desolate place' but a huge crowd follows Him and He heals their sick, but when it starts getting dark and they are a long way from food the disciples advise Him to send them away, but Jesus decides that they should all eat there. So He tells the disciples to feed them, but they say 'hey look, Jesus, we only have a little bit of food' of course Jesus provides a miracle and the little bit of food they had feeds all 5,000 men and the women and children with leftovers.

One chapter later when Jesus has been teaching a group of 4,000 men plus women and children that have been following Him for 3 days He tells the disciples to give them something to eat. After what just happened you would think the disciples were like, 'sure Jesus!' And just trust that it would work with His blessing, but they question how they can feed them all...the same way that they did last time!

I was reading through and saw this and I have been chewing on it for a little while and I think that we do the same thing a whole lot more than we realize. How many times do we worry about how a certain situation will work out, or how we will manage to afford this or that, or how we will ever pull a decent grade in a class? Now I'm not saying that we should not work at these things because scripture clearly tells us that our work brings glory to God, but I am saying that we have been commanded not to worry about how God will provide in these situations, but to seek His kingdom and trust that He will work out these situations to His glory.

So, yes, we need to work hard at everything that we do, Colossians 3:23 tells us that we should seek to bring God glory through what we work at, but we should not waste time or energy worrying about how things will turn out. In Red Moon Rising Pete Greig says that we should "pray like it all depends on God and live like it all depends on us". This means being obedient when we hear God's instruction and acting without fear while trusting that God will provide for His glory in every situation.

Microfinance

A bunch of you have heard me talk about microfinance in the past two weeks or so, but I just wanted to take some time to spread the word about what it is and how it works because I feel like God has shown me how it can be a useful tool for reaching out and loving others.

Microfinance is the process of giving a small business loan to an entrepreneur that is living in poverty so that they can improve the quality of life that they share with their family and their local community. I think that partnered with prayer and the power of God, this is a tool that can be used to change lives. I took some time to look into it and make sure that microfinance is legit and that people are helped through these loans. I found an organization that I thought looked straight forward and seemed to be seeking to help people, so I asked Jaime about it because I knew that she would have heard of this in all of her knowledge of poverty and social justice. Jaime suggested to me the same organization that I found and I just wanted to pass it along to everyone else. The site is www.kiva.org and they have profiles of people who are seeking microfinance loans and a lender (you or me) can look through and find someone that they want to help out. The loans are usually 6-months to a year and then the principal balance is repaid to the lender so that they can reinvest if they find someone else to help out.

There are some sites that allow you to participate in microfinance for a profit, but kiva uses the interest to cover the costs of the lending institutions, so the type of lending that kiva does is strictly charitable. This is a great way to do a lot with a little because the minimum amount to contribute to a loan is $25, obviously if you want to do more you can, but if you loan only the minimum of $25 and reinvest it over 2 or 3 years you can touch the lives of anywhere between 2 and 6 families and help them to escape poverty. But don't take my word for it, go ahead and check out the site, I promise you won't regret it.