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Session 1-Day 1 "Get Ready"

40-Day Challenge Daily Prayer Prompt

"If you pray to God regularly, irregular things will happen on a regular basis." Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle

Acts 10:2

{all posts are done on SONday but posted on their proper day}
(these 7 were saved, and did not publish on SONday-good thing I checked)

PRAYING 40 DAYS GOD'S PROMISES for PRODIGALS

I debated since the beginning of 2018 how I might spend and prepare for the next preliminary time before Holy Week and Resurrection SONday, commonly known by many as 'Lent' (a 40 day time not including Sundays, set aside for introspection, repentance, and fasting observed by the Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and some other groups - however, lately it's been shown to also have pagan origins). Overlooking this, I see the connection of 40 days of Jesus in the wilderness as a form of preparation for His ministry, enough reason for me to choose to set aside the weeks preceding the Resurrection Celebration of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and prepare my own heart and reflect with a set focus on Jesus and His sacrifice that redeems me from a life separated from God, when He chose to come to earth to pay the price for my sin (and yours - every one of us, whether we acknowledge Him or not).

With all that said ... I have spent quite some time looking and choosing what I would do during my time set aside. So many choices have been made available and I have been drawn to "praying" ... so originally, quite some time ago, I signed up for "Draw the Circle - 40 Day Prayer Challenge", which starts Weds., followed by another "praying" one that came to my attention right after that ... "Praying the Promises of the Cross" - I stopped all my YouVersion reading plans since the beginning of Feb. in order to specifically decide my 40 day time (and more, since I began before today - Ash Wednesday, known as the beginning of Lent). 

In the beginning of 2018, I also chose a One Year devotional "Praying the Promises of God" and a "Prayer Journey Bible" so as you can see God has been directing my steps and putting this time altogether to truly spend the next 6 weeks in "prayer". As I peeked ahead into these books and direction, I noticed that the 40 day prayer challenge claims right at the top that this is going to change my life ... and my hope is that the change in me will help change the lives of the "prodigals" and others around my life that iBelieve that 2018 is their year to come to the knowledge and saving grace of salvation in Jesus Christ. I began "to pray about what to pray about" as suggested in the intro and my heart/tears flooded with the "prodigals and the lost". My heart was broken before our LORD as I knew this was it. Although on a different blog, I had declared 2012 my year for "praying for prodigals" and followed another book for 13 weeks of prayer with 3 other sisters in Christ and of the heart, I strongly felt that I need to press in once again and focus on these dear loved ones and not just pray for prodigals or pray God's promises, but I will be ...

 PRAYING

PROMISES

4

PRODIGALS

for

40 DAYS+

(maybe it will continue all year until there is breakthrough)

but

I

BELIEVE

2018

is the year!!!

so

I

will

PRAY

as I Draw the Circle

around me

first

and then

 around

PRODIGALS

in my heart and mind daily

BELIEVING

GOD'S PROMISES

with

"YES"

and

"AMEN"

2 Corinthians 1:20

with a

LOVE that REMAINS

1 Corinthians 13

I can't promise that I will continue to blog or set up blogs for all 40 days yet I felt I should be accountable to let you all know my plan ... I use my SONdays (not counted in the Lent 40 days) to blog, catch up on mail and my You Version plans already in progress - some for the full year so I may pop in online, otherwise I am offline (my tech fast) ... by the way, we all are or have been "prodigals"! May you all feel God's LOVE this special day as you share His love with your loved ones, be blessed and filled with the aMazing Grace and Love of Jesus!
  [image credit: Dayspring]
my Valentine and prayer for you your prodigals and loved ones

(reminder that I covet your prayers for Thurs. noon medical hospital procedure)
THY WILL BE DONE

"PRAYING SCRIPTURES ...

... for Your Adult Children"

{moving this blog post forward from the 12th to the 19th so it is the most current}

Trusting God with the Ones You Love

by

Jodie Berndt

who’s continuing with an excellent series she has written "Praying the Scriptures..." for your children, your teens, and now your adult children. I wish I could say that I have read all of them as I prayed for my children and others, but this is my first one by Jodie Berndt, although I have read many books on this topic by authors like Stormie Omartian, Beth Moore, Ann Spangler, James Banks, Germaine Copeland, etc. so I am familiar enough with praying the scriptures and good authors to which I would add Jodie Berndt. Zondervan often publishes good books by good authors that I return to frequently. I can count on them.

I am so thankful that I was given the chance to read this one after years of praying. Not only would I highly recommend this book as a book for "praying for your adult children", it is excellent for learning how to pray the scriptures, pray for yourself, pray for your children at every stage of their life, pray for friend's ... it's an excellent reference with many "prayer principles" inserted as you read through personal stories combined with practical Biblical prayers and Scriptures! This is one of my favorite prayer principles:

"It's never too late to start praying God's best for your children."

[I'm working on a document to gather all these because they are so worthwhile. I could have and may take the time to share more of these.]
When I read this above in the 3 things Jodie states in the first chapter of "The Battle Begins" along with: "you are not alone" and "you can really have peace, even in life's messiest moments", I knew this book - of "joyful stories of answered prayers, lives changed, relationships healed, troubles resolved" and struggles of real people in families, as we trust God with them, and improve our prayer life - is for me, and anyone serious in improving their prayers, learning to pray Scriptures, and applying Scriptures to prayers for others, especially adult children, perhaps "facing harder circumstances than when they were young, but we can hold on to this truth: God has not changed." This definitely convinced me, as each chapter ended with "Poised for Prayer", and then guided us through Scriptures to pray.

What I truly appreciate is that it's meant for less than perfect children with real life problems or situations. {I mention this because of a less than favorable review I read} What is true in that same review is that the best resource is the Bible itself, but as far as I read there are plenty of examples of prayers using the Bible and Scripture throughout this book. If there was an index in the back of the book of the many Scriptures used (something I would recommend to the publishers to add), I could better tell you exactly how many. 

The book is divided into 5 parts with 4-5 particular prayer needs in each one: 
1) Praying for Your Adult Child (and yourself included in each part);  
2) Praying for Your Adult Child's Relationships; 
3) Praying through the Milestones in Your Adult Child's Life; 4) Praying for Your Adult Child's Health, Safety and Well-being; 5) Praying for Your Adult Child's Victory over Temptation; with an Epilogue, "Is Jesus Enough?" 

An example of a particular prayer need of Part 5 is "Praying for Recovery from an Addiction", with such varied content such as Part 3's milestones which includes: a good place to live, when your children have children, and a job; with Part 4 adding "praying through a job loss or financial difficulty" as well as "health crisis", "mental and emotional health", "struggles with infertility", "protection from harm" ... as I've mentioned this book is helpful, not only to pray for your adult children, but for yourself and others, not just your own adult children ... some prayers are included for grandchildren also, as in Part 3. I know without a doubt, I could pray many of these for myself, I have and will continue to use this for reference. I will go back to this book often; daily, weekly and in the future, as I pray Scriptures and "trust God with the ones I love" - all of them, and believe. I will continue to learn to pray God's Word back to Him because it will not return void. (Isaiah 55:11).

You can read this from cover to cover, or skip to just the particular prayer need as I did at first, then came back and read cover to cover, returning often to sections of much needed prayer. It is a small, compact book which makes it easy to carry with you and use often. I found courage and strength in using this book and praying God's promises. It is filled with practical insights and so much hope and encouragement. 

{This book came at just the right time for me, on my birthday, after learning my dearest sister-in-law had passed away; and my yet to meet, precious online sister-in-Christ, was also on her last walk to meet with Our Lord Jesus, as our adult daughter was facing all kinds of heavy trials and circumstances of battles for her living and children ... so it is a gift from Julie, at Handlebar, that I will treasure, because I totally had forgotten requesting this, but so glad that Julie did not and God had perfect timing. Thank you Julie, Handlebar for Zondervan and of course, God!}

Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher in return for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTCs 16 CFR, Part 255

Journey to BELIEVE

*

My journey to BELIEVE as the One Word for 2018 for me was not as simple, easy or straight forward, clear choice as in other years and different One Words. I was beginning to believe that perhaps I should just continue with “healing” another year or maybe Strength is what God wanted me to decide on as what might bring me the healing I need, which could have led me to Joy - as in "defiant joy" - but it actually ended up leading me to think that “unshakable” may be the One Word for me. Clearly “strength” is related to “healing” and according to Max Lucado, “Unshakable“ is connected with Hope and Strength, as well as Courage (Jan. 14-Mar. 18) and I guess this eventually leads to another one on Joy also.

Even though, I don’t have a specific scripture verse yet, I know that I came to the One Word as BELIEVE through my readings in the Word of God and other readings I was doing in devotionals, You Version reading plans and Daily Prayer from iBelieve. BELIEVE just seems too vague and since I already Believe, what does God want to connect me to, with this One Word - my beliefs, my lack of believing, what others believe or don’t??? I’m not too sure even after I commit to this One Word as mine for 2018 with no doubt that God will reveal more and whatever this One Word leads to ... God wants me to stand “unshakable” in all iBelieve.

     

So just to be sure, I began the YouVersion reading plan above for 77 days on Christmas eve, plus I have been enjoying the videos available at Max Lucado's church (currently up to week 4) and although it's great, I decided none of these are the One Word God wants for me ... but just in case, I also got a copy of Christine Caine's "Unshakable", which will see me through this entire year. Max Lucado's church will be continuing with Unshakable Hope: Courage (because the Strength portion was last fall and the Joy portion will be following the Courage series) 

Anyways, when you read the title to this blog today "Journey to Believe", it's possible that you were expecting a testimony from me on how I came to BELIEVE. However, I have no special word or testimony of me coming to BELIEVE because I can't think of a time in my entire life when I didn't BELIEVE (thankfully) in God, the Father, Jesus - His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet 2018 will AWAKEN many of my beliefs and keep me UNSHAKABLE in my faith and standing on all iBelieve ... God, more than likely has some new revelations that I still need STRENGTHENED in me, for a "journey" in believing lasts a lifetime and I hope my faith increases and grows in many ways, new and old. 

I will be starting the Online Bible Study with Lifeway and Priscilla Shirer this week; I can't wait "Discerning the Voice of God" better in 2018. My book came with "Awaken" also written by her, for Christmas! I'm sure this will aide me in this One Word discovery with iBELIEVE! as well as the declaration for Unshakable Hope: 

"We are building our lives on the promises of God. Because His Word is unbreakable, our hope is unshakable. We do not stand on the problems of life or the pain in life. We stand on the great and precious promises of God." ~Max Lucado

Of course, music also will. So here's a song from my childhood that replays in my head (even though it's worldly, it's beautiful - I guess even Elvis Presley sang it, but that's not who I remember singing it) every time, I begin to think of why ...
i BELIEVE

"... I believe for everyone who goes astray someone will come to show the way, I believe, I believe. I believe above a storm the smallest prayer will still be heard, I believe that someone in the great somewhere hears every word ..."

I guess these are the lyrics that impact me the most although they all do
"... then I know why I BELIEVE ..."



* I do not do Pinterest but the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quote that I had chosen, had a conflict and it didn't show up or disappeared - so I searched and found it in Pinterest, but in case it's not shown again or too small to read, these are the words ... 

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

... chosen for his BELIEVE echoed by Oprah with "You become what you believe" - even though we are more familiar with his "I have a dream" speech, there are many powerful and meaningful quotes by this man we celebrate today. 

WALK ON WEDS. (WOW)

With knowing I am long overdue on an excellent book I need to review  this upcoming Friday and shortly thereafter my Online Study will be starting plus  today is the 1st perfect weather forecast above 32  after such a long time before another cold blast arrives tonight {it's not the snow that's bad, it's those freezing cold temps and wind chill}
SO I have to take a literal outside Walk On Weds. because it may be awhile before I can again
but before I go let me share a snippet of my most recent email from

I HEAR HIS WHISPER...

"Speak My promises over your life"

Brian Simmons and TPT team

(just the last two paragraphs but it was all so good)

"... Believe all that I have spoken to you about your family. I will complete the beautiful work I have begun, trust in Me and rest in My promises over you and those you love. Believe all that I have promised you concerning your finances. Am I the God of Abundant Supply? Do I not provide for the birds, for the animals of the field, and for everyone of My sons and daughters? For you are the most valuable and costly part of all My creation. Sacred blood dripped from the Tree to show you My love for you. If I have given the blood of My Son to redeem you, will I not also give you everything you need as you walk with Me? Speak My promises over your life. Read the Words I have promised you in My Holy Book and make them real by faith. Place your hands upon My Word, for they are tangible, and trust in Me—I will not fail you, for I am your Father and Great Shepherd. Speak My promises over your family and over every need you have this day and you will see the deliverance of your God! Believe when all around you is contrary, for then you will demonstrate the power of faith. I have rewarded everyone who comes to Me in faith. My reward is My promise completed and My presence sealed upon your life. Rise up in a new wind of faith this day and you will not be disappointed. Take the steps that I call you to take, believe as you hold My promises, and the miracles will flow into you. Faith is the victory that you need, My promises are the seeds of that victory. Overcome in faith and you will see with your eyes the Kingdom of Heaven before you."B.Simmons

soaking in this wonderful

Whisper
with so much promise as iBelieve
and here's some glimpses as i WALK

...30As for God, His way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; He shields all who take refuge in Him. 31For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? 32It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. 33He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He causes me to stand on the heights. Ps 18

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. Ps 42:1