Earn the right to be heard

Relationship… Yup you heard it! R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N-S-H-I-P. This word is super important in this ministry! Let me lay it down for you.
·         We have two teams of three that are doing separate jobs within a day (our leader floats between each team).
·         While one team is out prayer walking down Bangla, the other is working on the land.
·         In the evening the prayer walkers then go back to Bangla to bring more of God’s Kingdom. The other team stays back at the house and prays for the girls out ministering.
Now that you have an idea of a day to day schedule let me share a very important phrase! “Earn the right to be heard”, as my Young Life groupies would say! This simple phrase has brought relationship into perspective for me!
So let’s start with God creating Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.  What the heck was our purpose from the beginning? To have a relationship with God! God literally made us, in his image, just to be in relationship with us. So you know what happened next… SIN.
Then there is the story of this dashing man named Jesus. He was sent to redeem the relationship that God had once placed before us in the garden of Eden. His blood covered our sins and brought us back into God’s sight as holy and blameless. Wait it gets better… He adopted is into his kingdom as his son’s and daughter’s. (Ephesians 1:4-10). Soak that up for just a moment.
So how do I give people the gift of life that lives inside me? First step is to listen to God’s still small voice and do what he asks; but what about when you can’t hear him? Is he even there? THE LORD NEVER LEAVES YOU OR FORSAKES YOU! Sometimes making Jesus known to others is time consuming. You have to persistently love someone the way God would. His love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:8).
There are many relationships that have bloomed since our arrival. Some are on the road of Bangla, but many are stretching everywhere we walk. The most amazing part is we don’t have to press people into wanting to hear about our God. People see the difference in our character and they are curious about what it is. Relationships open the door to trust and respect for what the other person has to say. The way you live should reflect the way you speak. Earn the right to be heard!!
Relationships… that is my topic of this week! I will earn the right to be heard by showing the people around me I love them. It’s not about my strength but about how God is glorified through me!
 
One story I will share from awhile ago was an amazing night we had on Bangla road. My team, (April, Summer, Ashley and I) were walking back to the car around 11:30pm. However, before leaving Ashley heard the singer in one of the bars exclaim, “Our next song is going to be Britney Spears”. In sheer Joy she pulled all of us back to jam out and sing. The song actually ended up being a Journey song, but that is beside the point.
As we all sang and laughed a man motioned us over. We all walked over and He offered us drinks. We laughed and said that we were fine and He insisted that we indulge in his offer. So… we all got more soda. The man was gleefully laughing and enjoying our company. He leaned in and with a huge smirk said, “you know why I offered you drinks?”. I smiled and He exclaimed, “because you ladies are so joyful”.
If that wasn’t awesome enough one of the girls that was with us asked if he knew Jesus. He began to excitedly exclaim, “I believe! I believe in Jesus!”. He told us how God saved his life because he was shot and the bullet missed his heart by a couple inches. By now we had all started jumping around and proclaiming the name of Jesus right on the street of Bangla. What the just happened? Oh yeah! God can do anything!