Cast all your cares on Him, He cares for you.

The past two weeks of my life have been an absolute blur. Let's recap real quick m'kay? I spent a weekend in Morgantown, Ky, my sister graduated from high school, my family threw a graduation/memorial day celebration, I babysat twin, one-year-old, boys for a week, and tonight my family and I just returned from a weekend in Brownsburg, Indiana, where we sang three nights for a church's homecoming. Honestly I should've been blogging much more than I have been. I have learned so many lessons and God has spoken to me so much in these past few weeks!
So, I suppose the question is "where do I begin?" Unfortunately, for now, I think I'm going to skip all the great things that happened between the end of school and this weekend and just let you in on a few things God showed me while I was in Indiana. I am going to be very blunt in saying this one thing: There are times in this stinkin' life when you are going to want to give up on God. I know I know! Harsh! But oh so true!
Things here at the home church have been pretty sad lately. We've seen a dramatic drop in numbers and the hope here at Hope has been dwindling. I mean, it is really easy to look excited and act excited, but honestly, there are times when I lay awake at night worrying about my church folk. (Its hard work being in the ministry!!!) So what do we do? Well, I have a few solutions.
Now, I realize not all who read this blog belong to Hope Church, its ok, take these next few paragraphs and try to apply them to the situations in your own life. Here goes: the lessons I learned in Indiana.

1. God rewards the faithful. Ok, now this isn't technically something God spoke to me while I was in Brownsburg, it was more of a reminder. This is something God spoke to me when I first felt the call into the ministry. GOD REWARDS THE FAITHFUL. So when you feel like giving up on God, don't. Its that simple. Keep moving forward. Move past all doubt. Believe on Him that He will make a way for you when it seems there is no way. God rewards those who are faithful to Him.
2. Do everything in your power to be a servant. We are called to the life of a servant. Everything we do should be to serve others or to serve God. What are you doing with your life? Are you working? Give the money that you make back to God. Are you encountering people in your daily walk? Share with them the gospel. Is your worship humble? Are you going before God with a servant's heart? After salvation, as a Christian, our main concern should be to serve God. How long has it been since you asked Him what it is He needs you to do rather than telling Him what you want to do? (Shew, I'm preachin to myself!)
3. Even a prophet is without honor in his own country. Yeah, I know this one is a little weird, but it is taken from a story in the new testament where Jesus was rejected in Nazareth and he could do nothing but heal a few sick because the people had no faith in Him. Sometimes we are going to be rejected. I saw this prime example on my trip. My dad went into McDonalds and the first person he came to, he invited them to come to church and hear us sing. Now, my Dad would never do this in our hometown. Why? Because he is afraid of rejection. I am the same way! But in the Bible, we read that though the Lord was rejected, He still did whatever he could, He still healed a few!
4. Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you. This one I got when I came home. I spent pretty much the entire weekend without my phone or internet, and though it was a great break, I was starving for connection when I got home. Still, while I was chatting with friends on facebook and texting it up with some church folks on the phone, in the back of my mind I could not stop thinking about my church and how worried I am about the situation we are in. Well, I went to the homepage of my facebook and one of my friends had posted the scripture: Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you. Later she changed it to "Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for you." This really spoke to me. God cares about us!!! He has not forgotten us! If we will cast all our cares upon the Lord He WILL take care of us!

While we were in Indiana we heard some great preaching. One of the sermons was entitled, when God stood still. The bottom line of the message was that when we reach out to touch God, He is going to touch us. If you look at the story in the Bible of the woman with the issue of blood, she touched God and He immediately knew that virtue, healing, had gone out of Him. He did not command that she be healed, she just touched Him and it happened. We can touch God! We can cast all our cares upon Him! He cares for us!