Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Renewed Mind


I got the sweetest devotional from fellow iFaster Amy Savage this weekend. The devotion for today seemed appropriate to focus on throughout an iFast day. I was having a conversation last week with a friend about how easy it is some weeks to just let it slip by. Sometimes you fast, sometimes you don't. On the weeks that you fast, sometimes you make it all day (or whatever you feel called to) and sometimes you eat b/c you are hungry halfway through. Sometimes, you make the whole day fasting....but realize at the end of the day that it wasn't real fasting and praying...it was just not eating.

One of the goals in fasting is to point our hearts towards Jesus. To spend the time we would have spent eating, praying. To allow the grumbling of our stomachs to turn our hearts towards the Bread of Life.

From "JESUS CALLING" by Sarah Young

I am renewing your mind. When your thoughts flow freely, then tend to move toward problems. Your focus gets snagged on a given problem, circling round and round it in attempts to gain mastery. Your energy is drained away from other matters through this negative focus. Worst of all, you lose sight of Me.

A renewed mind is Presence-Focused. Train your mind to seek Me in every moment, every situation. Sometimes you can find Me in your surroundings, a lilting birdsong, a loved one's smile, golden sunlight. At other times, you must draw inward to find Me. I am always present in your spirit. Seek My Face! Speak to Me and I will light up your mind. (Romans 12:2, Psalm 105:4)
Praying this week, we seek Him and that TODAY is filled with intimacy and His presence anew!!!

Requests:

Remember the Poor:
Praying to the Lord of the harvest to raise up and send out laborers into his harvest. Praying that the church would rise up and be known to the world by her fruit, that we would live out pure religion in every way, caring well for every widow and every orphan, that not one would be left unloved, unfed, unmedicated, or uneducated.

Lemonade International
1. Pray for our team member, Donnie Long, who is spending the month of February in the US before returning to Guatemala to serve as our Full-Time Missions House Director and Group Leader for short-term teams serving in La Limonada. He is in the US to rest, connect with family and friends and to raise support after being in four different countries over the past five months.
2. Pray for our team member, Leah Craver, who is returning to the US in less than two weeks after serving in La Limonada for the past year. She will also be raising support to continue working Part-Time helping to coordinate our child sponsorship program.
3. Pray for Erwin "Shorty" Luna as he fully steps into the role of pastor to the La Limonada community and serves as the point person of our new church "Communidad de Fe".
4. Pray for important steps that need to be followed to move our carpentry workshop forward at Escuelita Mandarina.
5. Pray for "Michael" - a 12 year old boy in La Limonada who tends to be the "class clown", but is currently depressed because his family and home life is falling apart. We visited his home last week and the environment is horrible.
6. Pray for a team of 11 people from Lifepointe Church in Raleigh, NC who wil be arriving in Guatemala this Sunday to serve in La Limonada next week. They will be conducting a dental clinic, sports programs for the kids as well as helping with some small construction projects.

HELP
1. Please pray for our shirts4help.com campaign, hoping to sell 1000 shirts, almost halfway there. Proceeds goes to Haiti Orphans.
2. HELP has a booth at Verge Conference this week in Austin. Pray for favor, contacts, and most of all, action!
3. I'm speaking Saturday at the Verge Conference on "How the church can be creative, and care for the orphan." Pray for wisdom and clarity!
4. We've recently sent our a "stateside operations" plea for financial support. We need some cash flow, to take advantage of all these opportunities.
5. Pray for strength, I'm really tired and need some strength!
6. We have a benefit concert this Friday in Sacramento. Pray God moves on the hearts of the people to love and serve the orphan.

Thx, always praying for all of you also!

HOPECHEST

1. Praise! Thanks for praying for the for the launches this weekend. Birmingham went well as did Atlanta! Thanks for all of the volunteers who made this a success and worked so tirelessly.

2. Praise! We are celebrating with our volunteers, Ben and Amy, who passed court in Ethiopia today for their new little guy, Tariku. Also praising with Lindsey and Le in OKC who got their court date for Ethiopia today!

3. Pray for the upcoming Swazi trip. The team leaves on the 15th and Greg leaves a few days early to go to S. Africa. Pray for all of their hearts that God would prepare them for what He has laid out for them.

4. Pray for our upcoming opening of S. Africa

5. Pray for Jumbo and Kriek, our Swazi leadership, who are in the country for meetings and some R&R

6. Pray for upcoming fundraisers and launches that are in the planning stages for the next few months. Crucial decisions are being made every day

7. Pray for Bukedea, Adecar and Kabermaido as they continue to seek sponsors

8. Praise! Over 800 shirts sold in Shirts for Shoes! That means tons of shoes for some precious little (and big) feet!!! Thank you Kari for spearheading this and thanks to all who blogged, FBd and Tweeted about it
Thank you for lifting up the children we serve. Thank you for lifting up our staff.

Pray for other organizations that are participating in iFast but didn't get their requests in (I didn't send out a weekly reminder since I was flying all day :-)
Orphan Relief and Rescue
Caroline's Promise
HopeMongers
Abba Fund
Global Orphan Outreach
Liberia Education Project
Amazima Ministries

Join us tomorrow morning first thing for a time of corporate prayer. I promise, you'll be blessed! Wednesdays 9:30 AM (eastern) at CALL IN # : 760- 569- 9000 ID: 968101

Read more about iFast58 at www.iFast58.org

Thanks!

Brandi
NEW blog address:

1 comment:

Beautiful Mess said...

LOVED this devo! Amazing!