Philippians 2:17, New International Version

“But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.”

Last week my wife and I got back from a mission trip to Tokyo. We were there for seven days and got to experience a lot of awesome and amazing things. We got to participate in evangelism and be a part of a variety of prayer walks to engage in spiritual warfare. It was both an exciting trip and an exhausting trip. This was by far the most physically demanding trip that we have taken. Most of the time when we go on mission trips, we have transportation arranged which will pick us up from where we are staying and then drive us to the place where we will be ministering. When we were in Tokyo however, we walked and took the train everywhere we needed to go. The amount of walking was truly extraordinary. One of the team members had an app with tracked steps and reported that over the course of the trip the team had taken over 114,000 steps. Needless to say, while we were blessed to be on the trip, we were also very thankful to make it home safely.

One of the things that I personally was dealing with on the trip was an issue with my knee. On the second day of the trip as we were doing a prayer walk about a Buddhist temple, I began to feel a painful sensation in my left knee. Within an hour or so my knee was swollen, and I could physically feel something inside my knee moving and hurting. Having had multiple knee injuries in the past I immediately knew what was wrong. I had torn some cartilage in the knee, and it was causing pain and inflammation which was causing me to limp. I kept walking that day and the next and by the time that Sunday came around, I was feeling very down. I was at a point at which I was allowing my emotions to lead me and it was causing me to become very selfish. 

At the end of the church service there was a call for prayer. I immediately knew I needed to go forward and ask for prayer. A young man met me and asked how he could pray. I explained the situation to him and without hesitation he began to pray. I didn’t feel any immediate change or experience anything specific, but I knew that I felt very blessed. After that we ate lunch and then walked with the members of the church to a very busy intersection and started doing outreach. We stood and walked for over two hours and at the end I suddenly realized that I had not even thought about my knee the entire time. I was not experiencing any more pain or discomfort and was walking perfectly normally. God had given me grace and given me the ability to do His work! 

God is seeking those who are willing to step out and do His work even when things are challenging and difficult. When we take that step and move forward, He is faithful to show up and work in our lives. He will make a way where there is no way. If you are reading this today and you are encountering resistance and trial, I want to remind you to take heart because greater is He is in you than he who is in the world. Keep moving forward because the victory is already won!