In the World Race community, there is this thing called Keys for the Journey. It’s the opportunity to buy a  key and the person who makes it asks the Holy Spirit for a word to give you and they engrave the word on the key. The word is meant for your own personal spiritual growth and wearing the key around your neck as a reminder of what you are working towards. When you're about to leave on the World Race you can buy one for a discounted price and receive it when you launch. So I bought one looking forward to what word I would get.

The word I got is not one I ever would have thought I would get: Persistent. I prayed about what this word meant for me.

The first thing that God told me was Ephesians 6:18-20. 

“Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should.”

Through this passage, God revealed to me that he wants me to be persistent in prayer for fellow believers. Starting with my squadmates that I’m herewith. So I’ve been praying for things like love and unity between us all. Also to be praying for my ministry host in this country and in future countries. So, when I see the key hanging around my neck I try to pause for a second and start praying for them. He also wants me to pray for myself. To pray that I would boldly speak the gospel through the words that the Spirit gives me. 

But I don’t think it was just about prayer that I was given the word for. Since we are still in quarantine I’ve spent all day with the same five people. After a few days, we all shared our testimonies, myself included. More than one of them said how my key was a good way of describing my faith. That despite being alone, feeling distant even from God at times I would be faithful and at least continue in reading His Word. Although they told me this I struggle to truly believe I’m persistent. Those times they talked about how I was faithful. I see only the ways I wasn’t living for God. So on top of using this word to get me to pray for people and to be able to evangelize he wants me to see my own faithfulness in following Him. There is probably even more than just those things that God is trying to show me through this word. In addition, sometime in the future when I feel I understand the word I give the key away to someone else so they can figure out what it means for them. 

I would encourage anyone reading this to ask God for a word, it doesn’t necessarily have to be engraved on a key. Then walk through what that word means with Him.