Life is moving fast. It seems like nothing stays still for too long. We have good days and bad days that seem to come and go way too quickly. I think 2017 was a head spinning year for many of us, so much seemed to happen and the year moved at an alarming rate. In 2017 I finished college, and started a part time job. Then changes quickly came up at my church and there was some possibility to help with a transition in our youth. I’ve now stepped into another part time job and been placed in a higher leadership role, which has been exciting and daunting all at the same time. It’s felt like my life has been racing past my eyes and caused me to questions and evaluate everything. So many questions race through my mind, am I in the right spot? Have I made a good decision? Is this my will or God’s will? Should I stay or go? Is this what will benefit me in my calling? In the midst of all these questions I have been crying out to God, asking over and over, just guide me through it all. In all of life speeding past me, he reminded me to pray hard, he told me to pray for the sun to stand still and keep moving forward.

I recently have been able to come on staff at Daystar Church to help with the youth transition after our youth pastor moved to continue to grow in his ministry. I was brought on because I have had a heart for these students for a long time and wanted to continue to help it grow and thrive. With that, my role has changed even since I was initially brought on, I am now the Vert Student Ministry director at Daystar Church, which means that I get to manage all our youth ministries. It is such an honor and privilege, one that I am so excited for and an answer to my prayers asking God where he was leading me in regards to ministry. With this role I am excited, but at the same time, I’m kinda nervous. Not necessarily about the role, but of making sure that my heart is always focused on the point. To reach the next generation to have an authentic faith they can call their own. That’s been my heart ever since I heard God tell me in high school to step into the calling of ministry and be a pastor. I’ve been fighting to pursue this for so long, and now that massive steps are going forward, it feels like life is falling into place and speeding by. During my church’s 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting I have been praying for God to equip me and humble me in this role and to step into the questions that race in my mind. I’ve been reading through the book of Joshua, and God told me to really focus on the part where the sun stands still. Joshua is about to walk into a crazy battle, and he chooses not to fear, because he is focused on God (see my post from two weeks ago for more) and he comes to God in prayer.

Joshua 10:12-13 says, “On that day Joshua spoke to the Lord while the Israelites were listening. He said, Sun, stand still over Gibeon. And you, moon, stand still over the Valley of Aijalon. So, the sun stood still. The moon stopped. They didn’t move again until the nation won the battle over its enemies.”

Pray, and pray big.

God was speaking to me through this scripture. The cool moment that happens with Joshua, is that he realizes the power of God, the power to do all things since he is the creator of all. Joshua prays and he prays big. Like, breaking of the laws of creation and physics, he prays into a gigantic, earth-bending, multiversal way. Yeah, I did use comic lingo to illustrate the weightiness of his prayer. He prays for the sun to stop moving because he knew God could, and God did. The earth stopped rotating around the sun and the moon paused in its orbit. THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE. But the truth is, OUR GOD HAS THE POWER TO DO THE IMPOSSIOBLE BECAUSE HE IS NOT LIMITED TO OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING AND LOGIC.

Sorry, I just figured the caps lock was appropriate for the magnitude of which God showed up. Joshua needed God to move, so he prayed big. In our lives we doubt God, we have that interview and think there’s just no way. We go into the doctor’s office believing the sickness is still there. We question what will happen tomorrow and hate the direction we think we are headed. The truth is, we need to pray and pray big. We need to start praying like Joshua. We need to pray that God can make a way in that interview. We need to pray that God can turn the impossible into possible and heal you completely. We need to pray into the confidence that God made you, he loves you, and he has a purpose for you. We need to stop praying to God and say “why” and start praying “why not” prayers.

Run Barry, run.

As I read this scripture in a new lens which my life is in, God was showing me as he shows all of us, that we need to keep running fiercely into his presence. I’m sure some of you know Barry Allen, aka the fastest man alive, aka The Flash. Okay, so maybe he’s a fictional character, but God speaks to me through fiction and comics. The character of Barry Allen is a kid who went through great pain, unsure of his life and surrounded by sadness. He is struck by lightning and given access to the “speed force” (Yeah, comics, right?). If you read the books or have seen the TV show, there are many moments where the obstacles and villains seem huge. Whether a guy with a cold gun, telepathic Gorilla, or countless speedster villains, each obstacle is faced with a need of a solution. Why do I bring this up? Well, God told me to think about it in regards to Joshua. In our lives, things move fast, in a Flash you could say, and we need to pray big. We have a big God, one who wants us to trust him, but we can only truly step into trust until we run after him. The Flash TV shows has the recurring line of “Run Barry, run.” It’s always given as encouragement when Barry thinks he can’t do it anymore, but in that moment, he runs faster than ever and defeats the giant in his way. For our lives, we need to start trusting God with our big prayers and run, run faster than ever, into the presence of our savior.

You might be saying, Joshua, The Flash is fictional and breaks the space time barrier with his speed, and that’s the whole point. When Joshua prayed, he prayed big with expectancy, and God showed up in a way worthy of a comic book. God shows up, so run.

In my life, big things have started happening, and they have moved so fast. Maybe you’re in a similar place. Life is speeding by and things come and go so quickly. It can be hard to have trust in these moments, but we need to remember the scope of how great our God is. We have a creator over all things that made you, that loves you, and has a purpose for your life. In the moments of battle and uncertainty that come up in our lives, we need to pray, and we need to pray big. We need to expect the sun to stand still because our God will do it. We need to run, run faster than ever continually into the presence of that same God. In our lives, we need to keep moving forward into the things God is leading you into, choose to make him your focus in all things.

Keep moving forward.

-Joshua Thomas