I hope you had a great time celebrating our nation's independence this past fourth of July as my family did! Holidays are such a great time for togetherness. Independence day is a striking reminder of the freedom that we get to celebrate in our nation. However, the freedom we celebrate as a country is just a small taste of the eternal and complete freedom that we have in our Lord and savior, Christ Jesus! All we have to do is accept his gift and we get to live in complete freedom that is not at all dependent on circumstance! How powerful is that? Independence day is now in our rearview mirrors, but the freedom that we get to live n every day is not! Thank You God for that!
Important Update:
Tomorrow (Saturday, July 8) I am flying to Missouri to spend three weeks serving at a camp for special needs campers called Camp Barnabas. I am so excited for this opportunity to spend time serving God and being surrounded by other people whose hearts are on fire for Christ. I am filling the role of Apostle which means that I will be serving in a different area for each of the three weeks spent at camp. I will spend one week working one on one with a camper, helping them to have an incredible time and to have all of their needs provided for. The camp offers these campers a weeklong opportunity to sleep away from home and experience all the best parts of camp! They are able to zipline, swim, shoot a gun, climb a rock wall, and get to hang out with other campers all while being supported and surrounded by God's love! For one week, I will directly work with a camper to take care of all of their immediate needs, give them whatever help they need in their activities of daily life, and spend time giving them the best possible experience at camp! The other two weeks will be spent shadowing staff and helping out with other campers and tasks. I was so excited to be accepted into this role and can't wait to see God's hand at work throughout these three weeks! Once I get back, I will post lots of pictures and stories to share my experience! At the end of this post, I will add a link to the Camp Barnabas website for anyone who is interested in checking it out! In the meantime, we are embarking on a three week hiatus from posting, but starting a challenge!
As I've been preparing to fly to Missouri by myself and spend three weeks at this camp, I've been thinking a lot about how important prayer is. I am so excited for this, but I'm definitely a little nervous too. Hearing from people that they are going to be praying for me every step of the way gives me comfort beyond belief. Prayer is a powerful thing ladies and gentlemen! I've felt encouraged to pray more myself (something I'll definitely be exercising while I'm away!) So for the next three weeks, I challenge each and every person reading this blog to start today a prayer challenge. Choose a subject, and pray for that subject at least once a day for the next three weeks. It can be anything from a person to a cause to a country that you pray for, but shower them and surround them with prayer. A term I've always loved to use is "prayer warrior." Be a prayer warrior this three weeks for someone or something. This challenge starts as soon as you finish reading this post and ends in about three weeks when I'll post my next post! If you aren't really sure how to approach praying, I'm going to list some tips below that I heard in a sermon once and wrote down because they were so striking to me! I find these very helpful!
Prayer Tips:
1) Be specific about your requests.
2) Have faith that He will answer your prayer.
3) Spend time abiding in Him.
4) Keep praying. Be persistent. Don't give up on your request!
5) Pray to God using His promises. (Example if my prayer topic was the USA: "You promised to never leave us nor forsake us, so be with the citizens of our country and surround them with your love always. Do not leave or forsake this country even when it falls far from you, but instead be with us always as your promised and give our leaders wisdom, righteousness, and courage!)
6) Read the Bible.
7) Pray humbly and without arrogance.
8) Pray consistently.
9) Put away all distractions when you pray.
10) Pray honestly, fervently, and from your heart. God's sees all so putting up a false front with Him is futile.
11) Pray thankfully!
12) Pray always.
*I wrote this list down in my journal from memory off of a sermon I heard in Arizona last year. It was originally compiled by a Baptist preacher. To him goes the credit for penning these excellent tips!*
Keep in mind that those tips are of course NOT a rule book. Prayer is extraordinarily personal and unique. There are no "rules." Those are merely tips that many people find helpful if you are interested in trying a few out. Pray to God however you feel comfortable and called to pray! So what are you going to pick as your prayer topic for these upcoming weeks? For whom or what will you pray for at least once a day? It doesn't have to be for a super long amount of time, it can be very brief! I greatly encourage you to write this challenge down or set a reminder in your phone. Save the "Pray Every Day" image to your phone to mark the start date (or to send to someone else to invite them to join the challenge) and motivate you! Let's pray every day! Together we will all become prayer warriors!
Click the link below to check out Camp Barnabas!
Have a great rest of July!
Praying for you always, Grace
May God bless your trip - he surely will! Thanks for the prayer tips, yes it's personal but nice to get these helpful reminders. I am absolutely praying along with the prayer challenge; for you on this beautiful journey and for ALL of my 9 grandchildren.
Grace, thanks for another beautiful and helpful post! I love the idea of “prayer warriors!” I haven’t chosen my subject yet, but I’m thinking about it! Have a wonderful and rewarding experience at Camp Barnabas! Love, Aunt Kathy