Tuesday SHINE....

Today's Reading: Leviticus 23

Happy Tuesday SHINE girls! If you live in Georgia, you are probably reading this while the rain is pouring down outside of your window.

Rain used to make me sad. It would bring me down.

However, God has recently shown me that He is in all seasons and all weather! Literally and figuratively speaking. :)

Our God is in our Presence through it all. The Rain, The Sunshine, The Snow, the Hot and the Cold.

Don't you just love that?

Today, we have a beautiful SHINE girl sharing her story. Emily is one of our college SHINE sisters, and she is diligently seeking the Lord. Oh my goodness, how this blesses my heart!

I can only imagine what the Lord has planned for her precious little life. She is boldly and confidently pursuing His will for her life.

Her story shows that no matter where you are in life, God has plans for YOU. He is just looking for someone to say: "Yes, Lord."

Be blessed, inspired and encouraged by sweet Emily.

My Story
by: Emily DeJarnett

First, I want to say thank you to Jill and everyone who has posted on the SHINE blog. Even though I don’t know many of you, you all have taught me so much. Just being a junior in college, I’m still sheltered from a lot of the “adult stuff”; this blog gives me a lot of comfort about what’s ahead. Also, I really appreciate Jill giving me this opportunity to share what God has been doing in my life lately. It kind of happened by coincidence that we were going to reach out to one another at the same, time... of course, I don’t think it really just a coincidence. J I emailed Jill asking for some prayer about a big door God had opened recently and she encouraged me to take the big step and be prepared to see God produce some major fruit. She was so right.

To give a little back-story, last month I attended the 4-day Passion Conference in Atlanta with 60,00+ other 18-25 year olds.  When I tell you it was life changing, I really mean it. Looking around at the packed Georgia Dome filled with people my age seeking the Lord through worship and prayer and asking how our generation can glorify Him in HUGE ways cannot accurately be described in words. To be honest, I was expecting to experience your typical “high” and then get back to Athens and fall into my old patterns. Well clearly, that was not enough for God. Louie Giglio opened the conference with a sermon on the “immeasurably more” that God wants to do in our lives. That phrase, “immeasurably more”, was the string that connected every song, sermon, and scripture together throughout the week. In addition to the big group sessions, we were broken into community groups and then even smaller family groups for discussion, reflection, and prayer. During one of our breakout sessions, we spent time reflecting on Ephesians 3: 14-21.

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I’ve heard these verses before in church and various bible studies… In fact, one of my bible study leaders ends our time together each week with these verses as her prayer for us (Again, not a coincidence). The words “immeasurably more” really stuck with me. During our family group time we all said we believed God is able to do the immeasurably more in our life but believing that He will was a lot harder. I mean, how much can God do through a bunch of 20 year old college students juggling school, social life, sorority, etc? But the reality is, is that most of the time, God is waiting on us to open ourselves to the work He wants to do, not the other way around.

I came back to school with this idea really heavy on my heart. I’ve gotten really frustrated in the past with God not “moving mountains” or doing extraordinary things. After venting my frustrations to my small group leader, she challenged me to start asking God to open my eyes to the “immeasurably more” He was ready to do in my life.

Fast-forward to 3 weeks later when I was with my mom at my grandparent’s house helping her care for my sick grandfather. My mom showed me an intercessory prayer card that my grandfather had received from a church in Madison that my parents don’t even attend. It was so clear how powerful prayer can be. It was like a like a light bulb went off. How much do I really spend in community praying together for the needs on our campus or within our friends? Not much. Prayer has always been something we end a bible study with and apart from that, we do it alone on our own time. I again thought back to Passion where we spent lots of time in prayer together and how amazing it was. It really opened my eyes to the power of prayer and how vital it is that we spend time praying together.

I unloaded all of these thoughts onto my small group leader at breakfast one morning. When she was finally able to get a word in, she asked if I would want to lead a weekly prayer meeting. I am definitely a talker but praying aloud is really uncomfortable for me. I always try to make my prayers sound so eloquent but I tend to get nervous and my words come out in a jumbled mess. But literally, this was God putting a billboard in front of my face basically saying, “I’m waiting on you!! Stop thinking and just do it!” It was so clear that I couldn’t not take this step.

So for the last few weeks, a group of about 10-12 girls have been meeting at 8am on Monday mornings for about 45 minutes to pray. We pray for our campus, our families, specific requests, or pretty much whatever that is on our hearts that day. I’d like to think we are becoming our own sort of intercessory prayer group. In just these few weeks, the impact has been incredible. Just this week, a friend that we had prayed for by name literally minutes before texted one of the girls in our group asking if she could go with her to the campus ministry meeting the next night. It really doesn’t get much clearer than that. This is the immeasurably more we have been praying for!!

I am really excited to see where things go with this prayer group over the next few weeks and hopefully months. I have no clue where God wants to take us but He has made it so clear to me that sometimes taking that first step is all He is looking for to do the immeasurably more in our lives

Emily & Friends at Passion 2013 From left: Kelly, Emily, and Emily DeJarnett