desert places

I was reading a book last night, Drawing Near by John Bevere and he was talking about the difference between Moses and the Isrealites. The Isrealites wanted whatever they could get from God, but when things were rough they'd just soon go the other way, even if that meant away from God and back into slavery. Moses on the other hand desired the presence of God, even if that meant months and years in the desert place. When God suggests that His people could continue on to the promised land and settle there, but He could not go with them for fear He might wipe them out, Moses stands in the gap. Instead of giving in to the temptation of the promised land without God, Moses shows His desire for the presence of God above all else. He says to the Lord, "If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here" (ex 33:15). "He desired the Lord Himself more than His promised blessings. He prized initmacy with God above any treasures God could provide"(p43 Bevere). Am I willing to say this with Moses? Am I willing to say I will not go without you Lord, even if the way looks oh so inviting, even if it means waiting months or years in the desert place. For I desire you far above all else.

LPT

Praying for more fear of the Lord and more revelation of His love in my life and in the global church, His precious bride. He is a jealous Bridegroom King, coming with consuming fire and burning passion, any encounter with Him, with His Spirit leaves us changed. We must approach His throne with that expectancy, that He is at work, that He will change us, that He is willing, that He is wholly devoted to us and yearns for us to be wholly devoted to Him. Are we willing? Lord make us willing.

LPT 21-22

Today as i was praying I was blown away by the church, the bride of Christ. Thank you Jesus for praying for us that we would have unity. So many times I only see the seperation in the church, the discrepancies, but today as I was praying for Luka and his family, I was amazed to think of how many different churches from different denominations and people from different countries were praying, practically the whole city of Grand Rapids it seemed like and more. It has been beautiful to see the way the church has responded to such a hard/heartbreaking situation. When there is a need the church does come together often, and I pray for more unity. That as the days get scarier and scarier, the church would be refined more and more and continue to respond in love, when governements are frustrated and kings and presidents wearied, let the church serve Jesus throughout the earth, in the hardest placest, let the love of Christ be sown by the work of a unified bride. Let us not be afraid to go deep with each other, to suffer with each other, rejoice with one another, Jesus prayed that the church might have the same kind of unity that the Father has with the Son...now that's something to think about.

LPT 11-20

Please pray for my Soroti teammates Josh and Mandy and their family. Their little boy Luka is very sick and in hospital in Kenya currently. See http://shaarda.blogspot.com/ for more information. Also please pray for our team leaders Tim & Angie Sliedrect and their family as they adjust back to life in Uganda after being in the states for several months. I can't wait to join both of these families in a few weeks, they have become very dear to my heart.

LPT 8,9 & 10

Woops, a little behind. Oh well, so I know there are some things that I have been learning. I think the thing that stands out the most is that it's hard to stop 6 times a day and pray. I am usually praying when I'm supposed to, though not always, but I find myself always trying to pray while I'm doing something else. And i think in general, that's not bad to be in prayer while doing common duties, I think that is good. But when I don't consider the time set aside to pray as an important enough thing, to actually stop what I'm doing and just pray, that's when I run into trouble. I want to get better at really stopping what I'm doing and just pray, even if it's for five minutes. The stopping what I'm doing and declaring, this is important. Prayer is an important enough thing to me that I will stop what I'm doing to interceed on behalf of my brothers and sisters around the world. the other morning I was praying against the pet culture in america. I love dogs and cats and most pets really but as I was praying I could see how we use pets so we don't feel lonely, use them because they don't judge us, they are such unconditional lovers, well dogs are anyway...we use them and in the meantime forfeit the opportunity to grow close relationships with real people. People relationships are too dangerous, we have to be too vulnerable, so we cling to our pets instead, lavish all of our love on our pets when there's so many people in need of love. i think i have more thoughts on that, but i'm super tired. Jesus help us to not be afraid to love well those you put in our path, even if we know it will hurt us at times.

LPT-7

I think my new favorite part of this multiple prayer times is when I wake up in the morning that is the first thing I think about. I start my day asking God what's on His heart and how I should pray throughout the day. It's a beautiful thing. I don't have all I have to do overwhelm me first off, I have thoughts of Jesus and His love for me and for His other precious children. This I am enjoying. I think my alarm set in the mornings will always remain as a call to prayer, even when this lenten season is over.

LPT-6

This morning when I was praying for USA, I asked God what I should be praying for. I began praying for the christian youth, that their parents would not try too hard to keep them safe. While safety is a good thing most the time, protecting or attempting to protect people from some things can actually hurt them worse...hmmm...so I just kept praying that God would give courage to the youth of the nation to follow hard after Him, that they would not cling to this life too strongly, but willing to lay down their life for Christ. And for courage for the parents of these children that they would let go of them, entrust them to God. For me maybe it's easier said then done, because I have not had children yet, but I am praying even now for my future children that they would be willing to lay down their life for Christ and for myself that I would not get in the way of this, but actually encourage complete obedience to Christ whatever that may look like.
Later, during worship time God reminded me that He is always with me, and that His angels are protecting me and will continue to do so in the future. He also began showing me how strongholds are broken during worship, though i do not even pretend to understand all of it, or at least how to put it in to english words.

LPT 5

Here's what praying about for Congo today:
copy and paste link below to see/read more about it.

"** Child sorcery in DR Congo **
Increasing numbers of children in DR Congo are having their lives ruined by accusations of sorcery, writes Mike Thomson
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/today/hi/today/newsid_8530000/8530686.stm >"

LPT- 3 & 4

This is hard, yesterday I completely forgot the 7pm and 8pm prayer times. oh but I wanted to talk about Thursday morning. I decided to listen for what to pray for America. So I just waited and this picture of a coffee shop came to mind and a girl was sitting there and then she asked everyone in the coffee shop was anyone with their one man? And one girl ashamedly held up 4 fingers (signifying she had been married to 4 guys) then everyone else looked at each other and all either had multiple lovers or were currently living with a boyfriend, not married. I asked God what this meant and this is how He responded. This is about American culture. He said see how this mars their view of me. They get the picture that it takes multiple lovers to be satisfied and they don't see how undividedly faithful I am to them, and how I alone can satisfy. So I was able to pray for american christians that they would see how passionately God pursues them, and that they would see how He alone satisfies. And I prayed for my future husband.

LPT-2

Definitly need to write the early morning prayers or else get all the way out of bed...anyway, today was a good day of prayers. At the 1pm prayer it felt so good to just stop mid-day and refocus. I've realized that these prayers don't even have to be that long, even 5-10 minutes and I have been refreshed for more of the day remembering my purpose. During the 4pm prayer time I was just staring out the window meditating on God's creation and He reminded me that even though it's still winter already the buds are coming out. This encouraged me to think that I can be going through a hard season but He can still be doing a work during the hard, coldness of that winter season. I could almost hear Him saying, take heart beloved, see I am doing a new thing. And then later as I was walking outside and watching the stubborn oaks still holding on to their old leaves, He reminded me to let go of my pride. See how silly it looks for these trees to be holding on to these dead leaves, it's just as silly for you to be prideful. He wants me to let go of it and remember that it is because of His work in me that I bear any fruit. To God be the glory. Amen.

LPT- Day 1

So I completed the first day. Not too bad. One thing though, I need to scrap the schedule for tomorrow. No, I'm still going to pray at those times, but at least for a day or two I need to come to God in my times of prayer and allow Him to prune me, and point out the things that I'm doing or thinking or saying that are not of Him. In BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) we are currently working through John 15 where Jesus is the vine and the Father the Vinedresser and me a branch, grafted in that He wants to see bear fruit. And I'm going to devote at least the next days prayer times to that. Worship of my Triune God reveling in His holiness and love and asking Him to reveal anything that clogs up His flow of holiness and love in and through me. God revealed to me today that my prayer time is often focused on what He can do for me or others across the world, this should not be. Yes, good to pray for self and others, but pray in such a way to bring glory to God, that the prayers, at the deepest part of them need to be for God to be glorified, Jesus honored. Oh Lord, teach me how to pray.

Lenten Prayer Times--LPT for short

So I've been praying about what I should do for the time of lent and I've decided to follow the mslm daily prayer times. I know it's alittle late to start Lent stuff, but better late then never. I'll be praying 6 times a day at the times of day I would pray if I were a mslm in Uganda. Of course, I am not mslm, or in Uganda yet, but I will be praying as a follower of Jesus. So I'm going to divide up the 6 different times of the day, and each time pray for something different. The dawn prayer which will be around 5:50am will be for something to do with the United States, the Sunrise prayer (around 7am) will be Uganda , the Noon will be Congo, the afternoon (around 4pm) will be Sudan, the Sunset (around 7pm) will be Middle East and the Evening (around 8:15pm) will be a focus on some aspect of the Trinity. Then I will follow a schedule suggested by Andrew Murray (one of my favorite authors) called Helps to Intercession. This schedule will help me to focus on a certain aspect while praying for these countries, etc...And I'm going to try...to TRY to blog at the end of each day about what God revealed to me in my times of prayer, the struggles of trying to pray 6 times a day and the rewards. I share all this so that I will not back out of it, b/c I don't want to give up on this. And what God teaches me in this time I want to share with anyone who reads this. So that He too may touch your hearts. I start tomorrow, the theme for the day is the power of the Holy Spirit.