River - Update 3: SLAM Blog

“Fear not for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

One of the largest prayers I had going into this trip was more direction in my spiritual gifts, and after this week of helping out with SLAM, I can confidently say that one of my gifts is prayer. Through the testimonies of different people I prayed for this week, I realize that I have the ability to speak directly and authoritatively into someone’s moment. I learned this through another thing that the Lord revealed to me. He showed me that worship, whether done through service or through bowing down, has to be done both mentally and emotionally. Growing up, I was able to gauge how well I was connecting to God in worship by how I was feeling emotionally. This worked while I was a child, but as I’m maturing in my faith, I can see that it’s much more profound and complex than that. With most of the people I prayed for I did not have a tug of emotion or weight on my heart to go pray for them. Rather I saw them and knew what they were going through based on how I knew them and my experiences with them. I was able to relate it to my own context, and prayed over them what I knew they needed to hear. I can’t wait to see the ways that the Lord will continue to use me in this trip now that my eyes have been opened to this new way of understanding him.