Something I believe and I choose to believe in times of hardships is that God does not waste a thing. ”That in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.»
I think the truth is that He makes all things work for good. Period. But only those who love Him get to see it, since those who love God desire his kingdom come and his will be done above all. So when trials come, we shift our eyes away from own circumstances up to Jesus, and his kingdom. This is why Jesus tells us to rejoice in suffering. Because it isn’t a wrench thrown into God’s plan. It’s God moving the pieces he needs to move in order to do a new thing. A good and perfect thing.
That is what we are seeing here in Valladolid, Mexico.
GOD IS DOING A NEW THING.
In the midst of increased poverty, isolation, fear of the unknown, God is doing a new and perfect thing.
We’re just trying to step back and watch Him move. And when he moves, we will run in his direction.
We could talk about the difficulties we have faced as an organization. Shutting down our clinic for the first time in 11 years, cancelling our medical trips for the first time in 50 years. Watching our local community suffer from job loss and depression; from the harshest hurricane season in 20 years. Of course with no patients or volunteers we have faced financial struggles. At one point we didn’t know how we were going to continue to pay our employees during quarantine or pay for people’s surgeries. But what all of these things have in common, is that God has a plan to use them for his glory. Some of which we are already beginning to see… With Centro Medico San Lucas shut down for 3 months, we had the available time to develop new relationships with partner churches and organizations. There are many projects in the works because of this, and we are prayerfully developing a fresh vision for FMSL. The fact that our ministry team couldn’t go into the local communities led us to create our bag ministry, which you can read about here. This ministry led us to grow our network of pastors to reach over 100 local churches, which we will continue to do through training and conferences. One of these locals, Pastor Andreas, told us that he is seeing a special opportunity right now, and this opportunity is that people are sensitive to hear and receive the gospel of Christ. In this time of great need, there is great open door for the Holy Spirit to enter in and show people the comfort and peace of our Savior.
This is a unique and sacred time for the church to fix our eyes on Jesus and we believe that through Him we will overcome the trails we have been facing. The Bible tells us that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.. So Jesus already did his part. His blood has covered us. And now we want to do our part. We want to use this platform on our website among other corners of the internet to share our testimonies. Our desire is to be obedient to God- to make his name great among the nations- and then to just stand back and let the Holy Spirit stir the hearts of His people. And we believe this is how we will overcome.
There is another part to this verse, and its easy to miss.. I don’t think Jeremy Camp purposefully meant to gloss over it in his song, Overcome. I’ll admit, it doesn’t really fit rhythmically into the song. But it’s monumental. Revelation 12:11 says:
«And they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony; and they loved not their own lives, even unto death.»
They loved not their own lives, even unto death. Imagine the kind of life you would live if you loved not your own life, even unto death? To love not my own time. To love not my own comfort. To love not my own money or security. To love not my own friendships or family. To love not my own life.
And then can you imagine the kind of testimonies that would come from a people who love not their own lives, even unto death?
This is our prayer at FMSL as a ministry team, this is my prayer for the church in this time in history. That we would praise Jesus for his sacrifice, that we would joyfully and regularly share testimonies of the goodness of God, and that we would serve God with open hands, not holding onto our own desires and our own lives, even if it means losing them.
We are expectant.