Thoughts for The Year to Come

There's a song in "The Sound of Music" that inspires me to think about what is to come in 2013:

"What will this day be like? I wonder.
What will my future be? I wonder.
It could be so exciting..."

I do wonder what the year ahead will bring. Already, in just a handful of days, it has brought heartache (my dear friend's loss of hand and health problems) and excited anticipation (with our ministry studies).

In the next two months, I am excited about hearing Mark Batterson speak in person (at the Genesis Conference in Ft. Smith) and T.D. Jakes (at Project Gideon). I'm excited about getting through our Oklahoma School of Ministry studies in the months ahead and getting licensed this fall in November. I am also hoping that Stephen and Psalm and I will have clarity about our summer's missions project and get to go to Ireland (or wherever else He needs us).

And who knows what else is to come? Who knows what God will do in the next few months?

I look forward with anticipation to the year ahead. I know there will be, most certainly, challenges to overcome, but my hope and prayer is that He will make me stronger this year, grow me, excel me, excite me, and help me be the person He has destined me to be.

This year, instead of "Resolutions," I have made a pledge to pray as often as possible, engaging in the 7:14 Prayer Movement which challenges us to pray twice a day. I love this. And I plan to allow this to make me more conscientious of prayer and the need for disciplined prayer.

I have a profound HOPE for the days ahead. I honestly look forward to all God is going to do in 2013.

The Circle Maker

I am reading--at a slow pace, mind you, due to all the notations I'm making in the margins!--THE CIRCLE MAKER by Mark Batterson. It's an INCREDIBLE book about prayer, and I feel like I have been divinely led to this book "for such a time as this."

Already, I can tell this is the kind of book you read twice or three times just to digest it. It's not one you breeze through and accumulate information in a "hit or miss" fashion. Although I've only made it about a third of the way through, I can already HIGHLY RECOMMEND it as one of the most life-changing books or manuals in my lifetime.

I have long asked God for direction in my prayer life, for instruction, for the discipline to follow through. I have long known how important it is to have an effective prayer life. But I feel like, NOW, I am actually feeling the alterations within, the craving to pray, to learn more about prayer and to exercise my faith in deeper prayer.

Recently, I watched a children's movie called THE GUARDIANS, and I really felt God speaking to me throughout the film and stirring within me. It took me about a month to realize why He kept tugging at my heartstrings--and leading me to powerful thoughts and material regarding prayer.

Don't get me wrong: I fully realize that there is a plethora of information "out there" about every imaginable facet of prayer, but God knew which of those resources was going to be beneficial for ME.

Talk about a personal God.

I look forward to finishing this book, to planting word-seeds about prayer into my spirit for the coming year/s, and to being the type of person people KNOW and RECOGNIZE as a Prayer-Warrior/Spiritual Guardian due to my prayer life.

I am thinking of the song that says: "I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be a Casual Christian. I don't wanna live, I don't wanna live a lukewarm life. Cuz I wanna light up the night, with an everlasting Light. I don't wanna live a Casual Christian life."

Yes, I want to be a prayer warrior. I want to get to the point where I can have prayers that change lives, edify the church, demonstrate the power and glory of God. Ultimately, though, I want to be that person that God can use. To reach this dying world for Jesus Christ.

Amen and Amen.

Prayer: "Lord, my life is in Your hands! Teach me and guide me in all your ways. I want to please only you. You hold my whole world in your hands, and I'm grateful. I love you with everything in me. Forever and always, to Infinity and Beyond!!!" Amen.

The 7:14 Prayer Movement

The Assemblies of God is calling for a "7:14 Prayer Movement" starting this year and going until next. The 7:14 refers to the following verse in II Chronicles:

"Then if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, if they will pray and seek me and stop their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14 NCV)

At 7:14 a.m./p.m., believers are urged to stop everything and pray. What we pray for, specifically, is up to us, of course, but with this verse in mind, we might consider focusing on God to show up in us, our home, our communities, the nation, the nations (plural).

There is an app you can download for FREE on the Iphone and Ipad that will remind you to pray, includes a customizable prayer list and scripture and devotion reading for each day as well. But my FAVORITE feature on the app is that you can watch, LIVE, as people click their "I prayed today" buttons and their state lights up and a ticker says, "Someone prayed in Poteau, Oklahoma," or wherever that someone prayed.

I think this is my favorite app in the whole wide world, honestly. I LOVE how it really helps me to keep scheduled with my prayers and how I can watch as others UNITE in prayer for a move of God in our country.

Just imagine. Seriously. What will happen in our country if we all CONTINUE to use this app, continue to pray, encourage others to pray! What will happen in my state? My community? My home? In me?!?

Imagine what COULD happen!!!...