Day 6 - Pray for Our Pastors and Spiritual Leaders

Today's reading included a quote from Gardiner Spring. If you are like me, you're wondering who Gardiner Spring is, so I looked him up on yahoo. Gardiner Spring was a minister in the 1800s who resisted become a minister for many years and practiced law instead, this peeked my interest, since I am a sometimes lawyer myself. When he finally surrendered to God's call, he was the preacher of the same church in New England for 63 years, even though he received numerous calls to go to other "bigger" churches. He wrote A LOT of books.

The quote said "it is no marvel that the pulpit is so powerless, and ministers so often disheartened when there are so few to hold up their hands...when the churches cease to pray for ministers, ministers will no longer be a blessing to the churches." YIKES!!!! Guilty as charged! It is so easy to assume that my pastor spends so much time with God that they are tight and he doesn't really need my prayers because he must pray all the time anyway. It is easy to overlook the struggles he must go through.

Our church has 3 services every Sunday morning, plus a Sunday night service, plus a discipleship class the pastor teaches every Wednesday. That's a lot of preaching, teaching and preparation. I am going to try harder to pray for him and his family.

Day 5 - Unity within the Church Body

Okay, I have to admit that just the title of this one made me cringe a little. I sometimes (okay oftentimes) struggle with unity. I know we're all on the same team in the church and we should be working together, but I have to admit that sometimes I struggle with not tearing other folks down to make me feel better. When God seems to be blessing someone else more, or giving them an opportunity in ministry that I wish I could have, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we have a common goal and God just might know what He's doing and doesn't really need my take on who He should use to accomplish His goals.

I pray for God to protect and grow the unity of His church and help me keep sight of the real reason I'm there. I also pray that I would be open to where God wants me and not where I want me.

Day 4 - Missionaries

Today was about praying for missionaries. My first thought was a prayer of thanksgiving that God had not called me to a mission field:), but on a more serious note, prayer is what most missionaries want more than anything else we can give them. There is a couple from our church who just went to Ethiopia for in January to begin serving God there. They sort of know exactly one other family in the whole country. Can you imagine? I just moved to another region of the U.S. and I know I felt culture shock and homesickness. I can see why they might appreciate prayer. Also, it pointed out that in Ephesians 6:19, right in the middle of Paul telling everyone how important prayer is, he stopped and asked God to help him to be a better witness right where he was. Can I really pray for God to protect and provide for a missionary if I don't believe He can do the same thing for me? Whoa! Talk about a faith check.

I pray for God to give me opportunities to share my faith and especially keep me from getting in the way of God's work by saying something I shouldn't or having a bad attitude. And I do pray for God to protect missionaries all over the world and give them boldness and encouragement and help them not to feel lonely...and help me not to mess up what He's trying to do through anybody else too!:)

Day 3 - The Power of Persistent Prayer

Today was about how to pray. Now, when I was a kid, I thought "Now I lay me down to sleep..." or "God is Great, God is Good..." were about all I needed. As I've gotten older, I still feel sometimes like I'm not really sure how to pray. But, I always remember something I learned at G.A. camp (along with the Ice Cream Sweetie song from when I was in Unit Two), and that is to just talk to God like you would a friend. After all, He is a friend, our best friend.





That said, this was actually more about being persistant when we pray. I have been guilty of praying for something and then giving up after God doesn't give me a near immediate answer. I figure it must not be God's will. I forget that God's concept of time and my concept of time are not the same. In reality, we are to pray without ceasing (I Thess 5:17). God will answer us in His time and in His way. God will answer, but often I am looking for a certain answer in a certain, usually small, time frame, so I think He doesn't answer.





Waiting on God is difficult. I want to move right then, or at least in the next 7-10 days, so when God doesn't answer right away, it's tempting to go ahead with my plans. Sometimes God makes me wait on things so that He gets all the glory, as evidenced by M's experience last year. God chose to heal her on His timetable, and now I wouldn't have it any other way.

So today my prayer is to continue praying, even when I don't get an answer right away. It's usually worth it:)

Day 2- Revival - Spiritual Awakening

Today was about the Great Awakenings experienced in America, Wales and northern England. What a powerful move of God. How amazing it must have been. The prayer today is that God will reveal to me how to seek His face, that our church will become a 2 Chronicles 7:14 church - If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land - and that America would experience a 3rd Great Awakening.

I think I have the most trouble with the "humble themselves" part. I always seem to think my plans are so good and so thought out that God should just jump on my bandwagon. Instead, I am to humble myself and remember that He is the first, the last, the beginning and the end and I don't have much on my pedigree compared to Him. Who am I to think my plans are better than His or He just hasn't thought about how everything will affect me?

As I read this passage today, I couldn't help but think of the song "Great Awakening" by 4Him, that says "these are the days of the great awakening." Do you think? Could it be? That sure would be awesome!

Day 1 - Dear Lord

Today's prayer was from our Pastor. It was a prayer that our church would rise up and be a city on a hill, shining as a beacon to our community. We pray that we will have a "fearless faith" and live our lives with "selfless abandon".

This was kind of a general thank you God, help us to be what you want us to be and keep us from being led astray prayer. What a great start. It is exciting to set out on a journey. I'm always filled with anticipation. I kind of feel the same way about this month. I am excited to see what God can do in my life, but more than that, in the life of our church, our nation, and our world.

This morning on my way into work, I heard the morning personality on the Christian radio station I was listening to talking about how she was looking at what the bible had to say about prayer and fasting as she prepared for Easter. Then, the same station played the song, "City on Our Knees" by tobyMac, which is currently one of my favorite songs and talks about being a city on our knees now, not tomorrow or next week or next year. It is amazing sometimes how God sends confirmation to you of what He is trying to say. I pray today that we can all be like a city on a hill, a beacon to our corner of the world, shining God's love with abandon.

We now interupt this regularly scheduled adoption blog...

To bring you a month of prayer...well, about prayer.

First off, I know I have been horrible at blogging for the past 11 months or so:( I will try to do better.

Now, as to the prayer...I went to church this Sunday expecting to hear the last sermon in the marriage series our pastor has been doing. Instead, they passed out a devotional type book on prayer and our pastor preached on prayer and fasting. I have to admit I was not particularly excited. If you grew up in the church, chances are you've learned about prayer...a lot. As I have grown in my walk with Christ, I have come to learn that prayer is a vital part of staying and feeling connected to God and that a blessing over lunch doesn't quite cut it. That said, I wasn't sure how much more I could learn about prayer.

Our church passed out these prayer devotional books that cover the month of March. 31 days of prayer...and fasting. I'm not going to blog about the fasting part, because that's just between the believer and God, but I really feel like I should share on the prayer part...warts and all.

Have you ever held something and just sensed the presence of God so much that you felt overwhelmed...felt like weeping...felt like God really wanted to do something? That's how I felt when I pulled out the book today to read Day 1. I had really just decided to do this because the whole church was going to do it and it couldn't hurt. But when I opened the book and flipped through to see the names of those who had contributed and the topics of their pages, I just really felt God's presence. It was like He was telling me that something mighty and awesome beyond our wildest imaginations is waiting for us, just as He is waiting for us. He wants to spend time with us if we'll only take the time to really slow down and relish every moment of our time with Him.

This probably won't be the most eloquent thing I have ever written, and it may offend some people. I would love it though if you would join me for the journey. Who knows what we might discover.