Home again, Home again

Hey everybody! I've been home for 10 days now and I finally feel like myself again... well, maybe those aren't the right words. I don't feel like "myself" at all, because it was truly a life-changer, but I am rested. Anyway, I just wanted to thank all of you for reading and supporting me while I was there. I hope one day you will know what it meant to me. For now, I hope you know I love you each very dearly. It's so crazy to think that I was so scared of going on that trip by myself at first. Everyone asks "what was your favorite thing?" I'm sorry, but for now, there is no answer to that. Maybe someday I'll figure it out, but currently, I have a hard time even talking about one specific site without jumping on to something else. It's driving Jimmy crazy! So I can't say my favorite thing, but I can tell you the craziest thing. I don't think I really learned much new while I was there. Sure, I saw the settings for all of the stories that I've heard since childhood. And that was really cool, but those sites aren't what changed me. This is the good stuff: I put myself in an environment that allowed me to hear from Him for the first time in such a very long time. Once I got there, once I was alone with Him, I began to remember His promises. I learned them all when I heard the stories so long ago, but I stopped standing on them. Prime example, "He has not given us a spirit of fear." Yet, fear almost kept me at home. Once I was there, alone with Him, I realized that the fear I felt beforehand was never ever from Him. He reminded me of lots of things, mostly of His promises. So, I hadn't intended to write anymore on this when I got home, but one last post. I want the final message of this blog to be that what has happened in me is not because I was in "The Holy Land." It's not about my geographic location at all. It happened because for the first time in so very long, I was alone...with Him. Please be encouraged. Stand on His promises. You, who have read this, for as far as I can tell, you are a lot like me. You know His Word. You've known it since childhood. So remember it. Get alone with Him and remember all that He has done, and all that He has given. Remember His promises--stand on them, live in them. That's the place. It's not a spot on the globe.  It's not a place at all. It's Him. Anywhere, alone with Him, is a good, good place. There is fullness of joy. God bless you all!