Prayer Update November 2006

Dear MN prayer warrior! The following is a monthly prayer update published by the Briding the Gap prayer team. Our goal is to facilitate MN women encouraging MN women as we pray together for our families, communities and state. Blessings!

Also, just a reminder that all are welcome to join BTG prayer at the district office every first and third Thursday of the month from 9:30-11:00 a.m.

If you have a testimony, prayer resource or prayer request to share with other intercessors around the state, please send it to Jolene at jacassel@northcentral.edu

Thanks for your faithfulness to pray for your churches, city and state. Let His Kingdom come and His will be done! Amen!!!

"Great things have been happening regarding community prayer in Duluth. I went to a meeting last Friday with 9 other intercessors from various churches in town who all feel called to helping start city-wide prayer meetings. I think we will have prayer on the first Friday of each month from 6-9, starting Dec. 1. It sounded like a lot of churches have their own individual times of prayer also, but this will be an opportunity to bring all the intercessors together once a month. YEAH! It was interesting that everyone agreed that they felt "called" or mandated by God to do this. Then someone read 2 Chron. 7:14. I heard it a new way, "If my people, who are CALLED by My name shall humble themselves and pray..." We all feel called, now the key is: Will we be obedient to the calling? Will we stand up against any discouragement or distractions that the enemy throws at us? There was so much UNITY, we all covenanted that we would be very careful regarding taking up offenses and that we would always go directly to the person involved if we had a concern.

“So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Over the past few years, as I have meditated on the abundant life in Christ, I found this has a lot to do with abundance of the heart. It has more to do with attitudes and spiritual character than with blessings and material prosperity. Since abundance suggests “above and beyond,” a similar word, “overflow,” began to capture my attention. When I came upon the verse in Colossians 2:6, in particular, the phrase “overflowing with thankfulness,” I knew I was discovering a secret to the abundant life.

Attitudes are so important. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Our attitudes will shape our words, which in turn, will reinforce the destiny of our lives. If we are grateful, an overflow of thankfulness will begin to produce an abundance of love, joy, peace and many other life-giving qualities from the Spirit of God. On the other hand, an ungrateful heart will disburse a fountain of negativity that will undermine the work of the Spirit and produce a dissatisfying life which is focused on lack and want. This is certainly not the life Jesus intended for us.

As Christians, we have the most to be thankful for. Our salvation and future in heaven are secure in Jesus’ work on the cross. Though He did not promise an easy path in this life, He did promise to be with us along the way. His presence, His tender words of encouragement, His faithfulness to carry us through and to provide for our needs are among the many blessings for which we give thanks. Cultivating a grateful heart is essential in maintaining a healthy relationship with God and creating the flow of thanksgiving. An overflow of thankfulness does not happen on its own. Remember, only one leper out of ten returned to give thanks for the mighty healing they all received.

This Thanksgiving, may we purpose in our hearts to be a grateful people. May that attitude cause an overflow of thankfulness expressed in words that bless and edify those around us. May those words be the building material of a more fruitful and abundant life in Christ Jesus! (Submitted by Fran McGrane, North St. Paul)