The Prayer Project Challenge #8 Sign-Up: Praying With A Childlike Heart

“I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom.” - Matthew 18:3 (MSG)

(Sign-up link at bottom of this post)

Remember how intently and persistently you prayed when you first began your journey as a Christian? I would say it’s comparable to the purity and honesty of a child - full hearted and innocent; unaware of God’s great love for him/her but knowing without a shadow of a doubt that He is listening.

I remember first being introduced to Jesus. My parents taught me about God’s love very young. When I was old enough to understand what it meant to be saved and become a child of God, every single night before bed I would drop to my knees and pray. 

With my head buried into my covers, and my little hands clasped so tight, I would tell God how much I loved Him, how much I wanted to go to heaven to be with Him and that I didn’t want to go with the devil in hell. Lol! As a little girl, this was my routine every single night. 

As innocent and simple as that prayer was, God listened. 

I can imagine how much pleasure He felt knowing that His little one loved and believed in Him at such a young age. At 5 years old, there were no hidden motives or selfish pursuits. There was only pure adoration toward God.

This pure and humble state of prayer is what God searches and longs for in us also as adults.

“God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him.” - 2 Chronicles 16:9 (MSG)

This is what I try my best to remember when communing with God. To be honest, naked and true before Him, leaving all hidden agendas and selfish motives aside and just being. Especially since God already knows what’s in my heart. It is important to me that I am sincere. 

This is what I want to challenge each of you for the month of June. To be as sincere and as honest with God in your prayers as you were when you first accepted Him.

Prayer doesn’t need to be pretentious in any way. God desires candor. He can handle it. It’s what He wants from us. 

For the month of June I am challenging you to pray for those who you first learned to pray for as a little child: your family.

I remember going down the line of family members when I first learned how to pray as a child, I would pray, “Please bless Mommy, and Daddy, and Auntie and Uncle, my sister and brother etc…” These were the most important people in my life at the time. These were the people that knew me, raised me and loved me. 

As we get older, our prayers tend to become more selfish. We never stop praying for members of our family, but our prayers tend to consist mostly of petitions for ourselves. 

So here is the challenge: 

Theme for June: Pray for a member of your family. 

(Be it a spouse, a child, a parent, cousin, grandparent or sibling)

How to Participate:

• Choose a member of your family that God places on your heart to dedicate 30 days of prayer to. Do not inform them that you are doing this.
• For 30 days, write one prayer a day as a journal entry. Keep them in a handwritten journal or type them and keep them in a folder on your computer.
• At the end of the 30 days, if you choose or when you choose, present the family member that you were praying for with the prayer journal as a gift. Let them know that God placed them on your heart to lift them up in prayer and that you decided to pray for them with no hidden agenda or intent to receive anything in return. Make sure you are doing this as a pure and genuine act of love.

(Note: Each challenge theme changes, if however you already have someone in mind that you would like to pray for that doesn't fit the theme, please go ahead and pray for that person. If God places it on your heart to pray for your family as a unit, please feel free to do that.)

Challenge #8 of The Prayer Project 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge will begin 

June 1, 2015. Emails will be sent weekly starting at this date.

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If you are up for the challenge, sign up at the link below to let me know that you are joining. 

Make sure that you check your email and click the link to confirm your participation. Already signed up? Invite your friends to join you! Click here to tweet: I'm signed up for #ThePrayerProject 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge by @Saunyaaa. Wanna join me?

If you have already signed up for a previous challenge, no need to sign up again. If you haven't, 

Sign Up For The Challenge HERE!

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Satan is After Me

Stop waiting for things to be perfect. 

It’ll never happen. 

Stop waiting around for a time when you won’t have troubles or difficulties… when everything is peachy and bright, lovely and just right. It doesn’t exist. Not in this life.

You may be thinking…”man, this girl is a pessimist.” 

Not at all. I’m a firm believer in better days. I also believe in perfect moments. I believe in peace, contentment and joy. However, I am learning that these things are obtainable only in the midst of turmoil. Because in this life, there will always be turmoil. 

The wiser I become, the more I understand this battle I'm in. This war I’m fighting. 

Satan is after me. Every single day. He’s looking to distract me from what’s important. He’s after my mind and my heart. And every day, I have to fight to guard my heart and my mind from his evil doings and evil ways. 

He’s slick you know. He’ll have you down in the dumps, losing hope and believing that where you are now, is all that there will ever be. 

He kicks you the hardest when you’re in your worst state. Whether you’re sad, or hurt or angry, he waits until you’re most vulnerable and impressionable to pounce on your weakened spirit. 

Funny that many times I don’t even notice it. Not initially at least. I end up wallowing in self doubt and self pity while satan sits back with a bucket full of popcorn (figuratively speaking of course) enjoying my hurt and enjoying my pain.

It sucks. 

It doesn’t feel good at all. But as a Christian, I always have the upper hand because I know that when I begin to feel this way, God is right there waiting. Waiting for me to reach for Him so He can grab me right out of it. 

But here’s the problem, sometimes I allow myself to get stuck in this pool of helplessness that I don’t reach for Him. I wallow…and I swim…and I sulk in what seems will never get better.

This battle is not everlasting, but it is lifelong. It will only last as long as I am living on this earth. 

“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” - 2Corinthians 4:17-18

I realize that this battle is constant. Satan will forever be after my heart as long as I am living. The more I understand that, the less angry I become with my life when it happens.

The only “perfect” days that are ahead of me will happen when I walk those streets of gold to meet my Heavenly Father face to face. But until then I must endure.

I must never forget to reach for God when I’m in trouble. I have to remember that I am never too deep in despair that I can’t cry out to God to rescue me. Because the truth is, this battle can’t be won on my own. I don’t have the capability or the strength to outsmart the wiles of the devil. 

But God does.

And if I don’t reach for Him, I’ll sink. 

I’ll drown in hopelessness and wallow in pain that is already overcome by God’s power. 
This power is also mine, if only I reach for Him.

 

Love.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” - John 15:5

"Just Write Saunya"

I have a folder in my computer named "Just Write". It's my constant reminder to exercise one of my strongest muscles...my ability to express myself in my writing.

Writing is my release. Even if I write about absolutely nothing, I find comfort in pouring my thoughts out on paper.

Lately I have been finding it hard to find time to write for myself. You know, journaling or "brain drain" as I like to call it. I don't do it as often as I should. I would like to write more blog posts. But I find myself wanting to make sure that my words are absolutely perfect before I publish anything. The strain of wanting my words to be perfection keeps me from writing here as often as I would like.

So let's make a deal okay?

I'll try reaaally hard to write more blog posts if you all don't mind me being 100% Saunya when I post. That means that sometimes my posts may be just random streams of consciousness, or they just may be my thoughts from the past day. I want to be as honest as I can in my posts. Y'all cool with that?

This will be fun. It will force me to put my phone down for a change, unplug from the million and one messages of this world and just write.

Just write Saunya. Just write.

The Prayer Project Challenge #7 Sign Up: "Having The Attitude of Christ"

(Sign-up link at bottom of this post)
Can you believe that we have made it to the 7th The Prayer Project 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge? Unbelievable! I am gushing! For me, it's like watching a baby grow and blossom. Watching this project develop over this past year has been humbling. I am beyond delighted in the work that God is doing through all of you are are participating in these challenges with me. It truly warms my heart to see God's love being stretched far and wide through you all. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of the privilege we have to be God's hands and feet. I can imagine our Heavenly Father looking down at you right now beaming with pride.

Well before I start crying a river lol, let's jump into challenge 7 details!!!

Now I know you are wondering what those 6 beautiful ladies are doing up there on The Prayer Project flyer. I'll get to that in juuust a minute :).

First I just have to say it's amazing how God connects people together. In just a couple of years I've crossed paths with each of the ladies above via social media. Not sure how exactly lol...but God places people in our lives for reasons sometimes we don't know until further down the line. Each of these women pictured above have such heart warming amazing spirits. They each genuinely love the Lord and are serving Him in the way that He created them to.

Each of them have inspired me and/or encouraged me in some way shape or form.

So why are they on the flyer??

These ladies each have a story they would like to share with you. I wanted to do something different for the 7th challenge (the number 7 is special to me) and introduce you other like-hearted individuals who are also passionate about prayer. God has given us ALL a story to tell and God laid it on my heart to ask these women to share theirs with you.

 It is my hope that what they share encourages you during this challenge and inspires you to continue in your commitment to praying for others.

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"Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had." - Philippians 2:1-5

For the month of March, we are opening it back up to writing prayers for whomever you choose. 

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How to Participate:

• Choose a person that is on your heart to dedicate 30 days of prayer to. Do not inform the person you are praying for that you are doing this.
• For 30 days, write one prayer a day as a journal entry. Keep them in a handwritten journal or type them and keep them in a folder on your computer.
• At the end of the 30 days, if you choose, present the person you were praying for with the prayer journal as a gift. Let them know that God placed them on your heart to lift them up in prayer and that you decided to pray for them with no hidden agenda or intent to receive anything in return. Make sure you are doing this as a pure and genuine act of love.

Challenge #7 of The Prayer Project 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge will begin
March 1, 2015.

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If you are up for the challenge, sign up at the link below to let me know that you are joining. 

Make sure that you check your email and click the link to confirm your participation. 

Already signed up? Invite your friends to join you! Click here to tweet: I'm signed up for #ThePrayerProject 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge by @Saunyaaa. Wanna join me?

Sign Up For The Challenge HERE!

Subscribe - Twitter - Instagram - ThePrayerProject - Facebook - The Prayer Project Shop

New! #ThePrayerProject Journals. Check out the new store here. 

Losing Momentum

You know, sometimes life happens.

Changes occur and throws me totally off center. I at times get so wrapped up in my current circumstance that I allow everything else to fall by the wayside. I know I'm being vague lol, but in the last few months I have really been feeling like I've lost my momentum. I've become very busy with life that those things that are most important to me have taken a backseat while I rip and run frivolously being busy with that that doesn't fulfill me. And honestly, even this blog has suffered because of it.

I recently read a scripture that has been on my mind for the last few days...weeks actually. It says,

"We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing." -

Psalm 39:6

Wow. What a wake up call. I found myself being so busy with work and home responsibilities and everything else that I began to complain. Complaining about being busy, complaining about being tired all the time, and even complaining about the very things that I asked God for. How did I allow myself to become a big ball of complaints? What changed? 

*sighs*

When I finally took a moment to reflect on the change in my attitude and behavior I realized what was happening. The more that was added to my plate, the fuller my plate became and I, without even realizing it, started kicking some things out. I began to neglect what's most important. 

That being...my quiet time with God. I allowed myself to get so busy that I neglected spending time with Him.

Now even though that was not my intent. I realized that this is why my attitude was changing. My life was becoming so full of 

stuff

that instead of going to the Lord to ask for help managing everything, I was becoming " a mere moving shadow...busy rushing" not knowing that I was becoming more and more depleted. I pushed what was most important right off of my plate because I just "didn't have the time."

I was still going to church, still going to bible study, writing for The Prayer Project and trying my best to continue to encourage others but everything was beginning to feel like a chore. I just couldn't understand why I was feeling this way.

I'm realizing more and more that the time I spend with God is my

food

. Busying myself and not refilling my spirit with His Word or spending time with Him in prayer daily literally starves me spiritually. And because of it, I'm not equipped to handle life's changes. I can't handle the curve balls that are thrown my way, my emotions'll be all out of whack...and I basically become a walking target, open for satan to attack me at any time.

The older and more spiritually wise I become, the easier it is for me to notice when this happens. When I sense myself feeling out of sorts, the quicker I run to God's Word for peace. And that is exactly the space I am in right now. I just need Him. That's it. My life makes no sense without Him in it and I am realizing that more each day.

The blessing is that God doesn't move. Whenever I am ready to spend time with Him, He's there. With the biggest heart, warm and ready to comfort me. And for this, I love Him.

Love.#ThePrayerProject Journals.

Get yours before Challenge 7 begins. Check out the new store here.