By Paul, DTS leader
How could we top this week? Better yet, how can we remember all that God has done in our lives, the specific prayers he answered and the promises we made to him? None of us will be the same after this week.
I remembered the scriptures in Joshua 4 where God tells the leaders of the tribes of Israel to build an altar of stones in the Jordan River as a reminder of what God had done for them. We decided to do something similar—to make a physical action to symbolize that we never wanted to forget what God has done for us.
We were still driving in the mountains when I saw a river near the road. I pulled off and explained to the students what we would do. Each person found a large rock in the riverbed and wrote a phrase or prayer on it about their commitments they had made this last week. We piled the rocks at the base of a tree and worshipped God there at the river, thanking him for all he had done.
It was a very powerful time, as each declared their commitment to live their lives fully for God, even in far off places.
I shared a verse that God had put on my heart for this time out of Psalms 2:7-8, “The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today, I have become your Father. Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession.”
We began praying for the nations, for specific countries that had been in our heart throughout the week. And we prayed prayers over each other too, commissioning each other to the nations, to the call of God on our lives.
I’m looking forward to next week, when we’ll learn more about what it means that God is our Father.