The past few days I have been getting extremely excited about leaving for the World Race next July. God has just been exploding my heart for ministry and I CANNOT wait to get out into the brokenness of the world to proclaim the grace, freedom and restoration that Christ gives us. However, that journey does not begin for another 8 months and until that day, I believe that God wants to use this time to prepare me for the difficult/extraordinary adventure that lies ahead. One of the ways I believe He wants to do that is through fasting…..
"It's 11:11! Make a wish and it will come true!" Okay, I am going to be completely honest with you right now….I do this. Thinking about it now, it sounds completely ridiculous to make a wish to a clock when I have an almighty Father in heaven that I can talk to at ANY time of the day but for some reason whenever the clock strikes 11:11, I cannot help myself. I always close my eyes and make a wish….which never seem to come true….I think I need to get a new clock to tell my wishes to…..yeah that's my problem….or I guess I could stop telling my "wishes" to the clock all together and start declaring my "prayers" to God who has never disappointed me unlike my stupid clock which can't even do the one job it was actually meant to do and wake me up in the morning. Have you ever thought about how ridiculous this phenomenon is? Wishing to a clock because all the digits are the same? I wonder what would happen if during those moments, we changed our wishes to prayers. What if for one minute each day, we just prayed? Now here comes the challenges……
Prayer (daily)
The World Race slogan is "11n11 " which will make this challenge extremely easy to remember. Every time the clock hits 11:11, instead of making a wish I would like to ask you to join me in prayer. This journey that I will be embarking on through the next 19 months is not going to be easy. Prayer and encouragement from people like you will play a big role. Here are a few things that you can be praying for:
- For God to keep my heart and mind focused on Him and His will during these upcoming months
- For the daily spiritual attacks from Satan to be diverted
- For me to not grow weary during this process
- For the Holy Spirit to lead people to support me financially
- For God to prepare the hearts of my friends and family as July grows closer
- For the rest of my squad as they begin to prepare for the race
- For the ministry already taking place in the 11 countries that we will be traveling to
Just remember, at 11:11 pray for 11n11. Catchy isn't it?
Fasting (one week)
As most of you who have a calendar know, this coming Friday is 11/11/11 and to people who are part of the 11:11 phenomenon, this is a pretty significant day. Basically, if you make a wish on 11/11/11 at 11:11, well you might as well be asking a real genie. So in celebration of this big event in time, I have another challenge for you and for myself as well. Beginning on Friday, I would like to ask you to participate in one week of prayer and fasting. This doesn't just have to be from food. Fasting can include numerous things. You can fast from Facebook, technology in general, food, soda, texting, sleeping in, going out, spending money or watching t.v. It can be anything you want really. God has been tugging on my heart these past few weeks and asking me to fast from a few things that have really been distracting me. So during this next week, I will be fasting from Facebook and spending money. However, to kick off the week of fasting God has laid it on my heart (actually through another World Racer's blog) to spend Friday fasting from food and spending times when I would be eating in prayer. BTW. This is a huge challenge for me because I LOVE food. (You can ask any of my team mates from Africa this summer) Will you join me in this challenge? Below is a summary of the challenge:
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Friday (11/11/11): Kick off the week of fasting
- Fast from food
- Spend the day in prayer: Ask God what He would like you spend the week fasting from
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Saturday (11/12/11)-Saturday (11/19/11): Week of Fasting
- Spend more time with God: Fasting from Facebook but watching t.v. instead kind of defeats the purpose of the challenge. Use the time that you would normally spend doing whatever you are fasting from and spend time with God.
- PRAY: Talk to God. He loves hearing from His children. Pray for the things listed in the first challenge. However, this challenge isn't just about the World Race and my journey. I want to see God encourage you and pour His love on you as well. Is there anything you would like me to be praying for this week? Send me a text, facebook message, comment on the blog, or tell me in person. Let's join together as the Body of Christ and see what God does.
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Sunday (11/20/11)-Monday (11/21/11): Update
- Send me a message: I would love to hear what God does this week as you take part in this challenge. I will be writing another blog that next week about what God did in my life and would love to have some stories to share about how He showed up in your life as well. (Don't worry. I will keep the stories anonymous unless you say otherwise)
Will you join me?
"So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer." Ezra 8:23
