Today has been a good day. We had to wake up early and fly to Adana and then we were on the bus for an hour to Osmaniye. So my day started at 5:15 a.m. this morning. We flew to Adana then had a bus ride to Osmaniye. We ate lunch, then I took a nap, and then we had practice. After practice we came back and had dinner, then went over game film for our game tomorrow. We play tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. which is 7:00 a.m. EST. It will be a tough game for us, but we are looking to get a road WIN which would be huge for us!!
The past couple days have been a little bit of a struggle for me in maintaining the JOY of the Lord. What timing it was when I read Psalm 1 yesterday and how encouraging it was.
Here is Psalm 1:1-3 below:
Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.
If I am honest, Turkey at times for me can be a super hard place to live. Turkey has some great people and the culture is nice, and yet one thing I have come to accept is to “expect the unexpected”. Unfortunately we live in a fallen world where jealousy, greed, dishonesty, corruption, etc. take place on a daily basis. There have been some frustrating things that I have had to work through with the team I am playing on, and yet despite my circumstances the Lord has been pressing in on me to maintain JOY and my testimony and show the LIGHT of Jesus even when I don’t want to at times. As I opened up my Bible last night to just have a time of meditating and spending time in the Word, I couldn’t help but be refreshed from the words above. Is it hard sometimes to not get caught up in discouragement when everything around you may be crazy? Can it be hard to maintain joy when deep inside we just want to throw a pity party for ourselves…yes and yes. BUT the awesome thing is, although I have had to deal with some unexpected things as far as my team goes, God continues to meet me where I am and provide for me daily. He continues to give me enough strength to get through each day. It is amazing for me to even think that the month of January is almost finished…where has it gone?
My prayer as I finish out my last couple of months here, is to rise above the chaos and mayhem that is constantly surrounding me, and show the JOY of the Lord that can only come from Him. The Lord is so faithful and loving. I have sensed Him picking me up, encouraging me, and giving me exactly what I need every single day and for that I am so thankful.
I have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to in the coming days and months. My amazing fiancé comes in 10 days so I am excited about that. The Lord has blessed me with an incredible family and some awesome friends. And then if that wasn’t enough, I get to marry the man of my dreams in less than 4 months...I truly am blessed. God’s blessings can even come in unexpected packages such as trials and frustrating times. It is through the uncomfortable times that we can grow so much in our walk with the Lord if we surrender to Him and “Let Go and Let God”.
This season, with it being much busier than when I was in Israel and previous seasons, I don’t always have time to write a longer blog, but I wanted to take some time today and share with you my heart and some of what the Lord is teaching me and showing me.
May we take time daily to bask in God’s goodness and presence! He truly is ALL that we need!!
Check out this song below that I absolutely LOVE!
God bless,
Megan