Reentry Prayer Request

Today I talked with my dear friend and team member, Mariah Kimbriel, about her reentry experience. Aside from dealing with the stomach flu and other sicknesses, we agreed that reentry has also been difficult spiritually. 

Since coming home, it has been a task to open my Bible. The strangest thing is that I desire to read and listen to what God wants to tell me, and with all the time of the world, it isn't like I'm too busy to spend time with Him. However, whenever I have opened my Bible, the words I read never really come to rest anywhere in my heart. Feeling like I've failed miserably in trying to grasp what God's trying to tell me, I become very discouraged. It has been in these times, when I am most susceptible to forgetting God's goodness and the temptation to be unfaithful is the strongest. 

During these past few days I have come to realize how moody I really am. My emotions tell me that I don't feel like believing in God. If I let my emotions override reason, I begin wrestling with a lot of lies that tell me that intercession and prayer is pointless and that God is not active in my life, which ultimately undermines His power. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity calls faith a virtue, one that must be practiced so that we will be able to know when to tell our emotions to get off. 

As I struggle to regain focus this week, my physically weak body mirrors my spiritual fragility. I've been reading Hebrews and spending a lot time meditating on the Word. I'm finding the more I push through this rough time, the more clarity I progressively receive. Overall, spiritual reentry for me has been one in which God and I are going back to the grassroots of my faith, where He's showing me again who He is, how He loves me, and why I love Him. 

Please continue to pray for me and my team members for strength during this time. We are encouraged to know that His grace is sufficient in our weakness.