"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
This weekend my small group was able to get a way and spend some time with the Lord and with each other at the coast. This was our second beach trip as a small group and, just like the first trip, it was totally blessed and so much fun!
The first night was awesome! We all had dinner together, had some time of worship, sat in the hot tub in the rain, and then ran down to the ocean! Eva brought all her instruments with so we were jamming all weekend with the shaker, drum, tambourine, and guitar. I'm sure it looked hilarious, but it was so good!
On Saturday morning we set aside a couple of hours to be alone with the Lord. We called it "be still time". It was probably my favorite time of the weekend! We were purposeful about not talking to each other or even being near each other during this time because we wanted to hear from God and spend some quality time with him. I spent my time praying, reading, and then sitting on the beach and admiring God's awesome creation!
It was so refreshing! God used that time to remind me of the many facets of his personality. One passage that stood out to me in my reading time was 1 Kings 19:11-12. God told Elijah to go stand on a mountain and wait for the presence of the Lord to pass by. It says:
"Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper."
He showed me that he is both awesome, mighty, and powerful and gentle, loving, and kind. He commands the winds and the waves and provides food for the birds of the air! He is amazing. God could have chosen to show himself to Elijah in a super showy way. He could have called down thunder and lightening and really made it a big deal. He didn't need to though. He knew just how Elijah needed to be spoken to. He is so understanding, and the way he chooses to speak to us shows so much about who God is. He is first and foremost loving!
God used all of this to grow me in the area of trust. Trust is one of those areas that we are constantly needing to grow in. I need God to show me how to trust him daily. I learn how to trust him by being reminded of who he is. His understanding combined with his awesome love for me show me that I can trust him.
Later on Saturday we brought the instruments down to the beach and sat on the rocks and worshiped. At first it was a little awkward and funny. In fact while we were still trying to get the songs started, sounding super off key and off beat, an old lady walked by us and Julia and I just started cracking up! I don't think God was disrespected by it though... I bet he was laughing too. In the end the worship time was totally awesome! There is something powerful about worshiping the creator in front of his creation! I took the photo above during the worship time... isn't it beautiful? It reminds me of heaven.
We also shared with each other what God has done in us through our small group over the two years we've been meeting. We called them "glory lists" (Tera and Julia are so creative) because they are the things we are giving God all the glory for! It was awesome and I'm so encouraged!
This weekend was wonderful! I'm blessed, refreshed, and encouraged!
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