For a while I've had this dream of doing a one night only girls retreat about struggles & complete healing in the Lord. I've always looked at this dream as something that would happen way later when I could get a better handle on event planning & coordinating, but God had a different time in mind :)
So Friday morning, I woke up with a list of a million things to do to prepare for that night. In Stranded, I shared that Satan sucks aaand my flights were mucho delayed, so I lost a whole day of prep. BUT! God is faithful! My feet hit the ground to start running my day and I feel this immediate pull on my heart, and it's almost like I had forgotten that this night was all about what God's going to do, not what I can put together. Time in the Word brought me to Paul's words..
1 Corinthians 2:3-5 "I came to you in weakness- timid & trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever & persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God."
Last night was nothing short of amazing. The Lord provided the funds, the perfect time & the perfect place. About 30 high school girls & college students & leaders drove up to St. Pete Friday afternoon to watch the Lord's movement.
This night started off with a meeting, dinner and creating "Things I'm Thankful For" books. Tylar & Joy kicked our first session off with amazing worship, and Ash was a vessel for the Lord. As she spoke on purity, one of our girls interrupted her literally just to thank her for the words she had just spoken. They touched this girls heart and she was so overwhelmed, she had to speak! My favorite Ash notes:
"Are you being the woman the man you're looking for is looking for?"
and my favorite favorite,
"think of your most valued possession. mine's my computer. nobody can touch it, use it, play with it...and when I went shopping for it, I wasn't looking for one that was used and broken. I wanted a new one, that nobody's touched before"
Purity talk, Lord, was strengthening.
Then, not to my surprise, there was a mess up. I had given Heather the same topic that I gave myself. Then...not to my surprise, again, the Lord uses Heather to calm the storm, "Maddie, God obviously needs this discussion to be reiterated with different words & in different stories" Praaaaaise the Lord.
So back to back, Heather & I spoke on finding wholeness in the Lord and not relying on people to provide that. I had to do prep during Heathers :/ So I really don't know if we crossed words at all but I just continued to pray Paul's words from earlier that day. And boy, did he provide!! again...not surprised.
The Chocolate Room...they say chocolate mends a broken heart, but I say that my ultimate Lover eternally heals it. I told the girls my struggles with depression & heart ache. How I got myself into it and how the Lord became my knight in shining armor to rescue me out of it. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 "Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I'm glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me."
It brought about the guy topic in which the light bulb analogy kicked in! if you're a light bulb for christ, the only reason to bring a guy around is to have another light bulb to shine 2 times brighter. I shared with them my struggle about bringing ungodly BOYS in close to my heart. "Guard your heart for it determines the course of your life." Proverbs 4:23. The Lord says that when we listen to this command, we find life and healing! Oh how true that is.
And being in love, being in a divine romance, isn't something that's easy to hide. I'm so thankful the Lord pursued me like He did, because the Lord has shown me that love is not mediocre. Love is joy...it's chilling, it brings happiness...no matter how hard the going gets, you come out stronger.
And as if God hadn't done enough, he crossed paths with a beautiful girl sitting in the room. She shared her struggles with me, as I did mine. The power of the spirit is indescribable.
Then chocolate party, Robyn & Joy. Rob and Joy were in the Royalty Room. They spoke on being daughters of the King. Robyn with trust & Joy with genuine happiness in God. Asking me for my personal opinion would not help because I couldn't be in there BUT in knowing that our God is all knowing and super faithful, I'm confident He provided!
The girls then went for the jammies while we set up the party room. Black lights, loud music and crazy dancing brought our night to an end.
Girls crashed everywhere & Robyn and I finished up their SeeYa bags. These bags the girls took home contained a symbol from everyone's talk. Attached to it was their key verse. For example...Jade spoke Saturday morning about image and natural beauty. It's not the outside that counts to fill our Spirit but the inside. Spiritual food is more important than physical food!...Any who, example, the girls were sent home with a flower attached to her key verse. Every speaker had a symbol.
We all made it back to the church in the rain and tornado weather, thankfully. God has already started to make my dreams come true and I'm only 19. What in the world does he have planned...
Our God is GOOD, so so so GOOD!
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