Draw the Circle Prayer Challenge: Week 4 Update!

Well where do we start?

Don't Envy them, pray for them

One of the things God brought to my attention was to stop envying people.  Stop being so angry and bitter because I don't have what I think should be mine.  For one thing, I am not ready for what He has for me.  I am in training.

Another point is that I don't know WHAT is going on behind the scenes in other folks' lives. People always say, Don't judge your insides by other people's outsides.  It is so true.  I don't know other people's private sides.  Instead of allowing envy to fester, if God puts them on my heart I should pray for them.

Inner Work leads to outside change

After the prophetic word at church last week about the inner work being more important than outside circumstances changing, I began to focus on this scripture during prayer time.  I realized that the inner work changes are so subtle that sometimes we miss them.  We don't realize how much they change outside circumstances.

Last year I had this vision.  I wanted to work at this place and start my own projects on the side, but I was too afraid.  I didn't think it would work out, I didn't think I was good enough to work at this place, and I thought I would be more comfortable with the title of manager.

Well we all know that ended in miserable failure.

So this year I decided you know what???? I'm going for it!  So the first week of the year, I get a nudge and I go through with it.  Well last week I had my interview and assessment:  Would you believe I wasn't the LEAST BIT nervous.  I prepared, marched into the place, and did my THING!  Now at first I had that old familiar feeling of not being good enough...but I decided I belong wherever God places me.

I don't know the outcome yet, but it doesn't matter because in my mind I have already won. Last year I was too afraid to do this, this year I rocked it OUT.  

This only happened because of all the inner work that has been going on this past 6 months.  Only 6 months of inner work and I'm on the path I wanted to be on all along! 

 6 MONTHS PEOPLE!!! 6 MONTHS AND MY OUTSIDE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE ALL THE WAY AROUND BECAUSE OF THE INNER WORK.

God is Amazing.

Um so I really am going to do this aren't I?

OK one of my Big 5 goals for the year is to do a fitness competition. I am scared.  Terrified is a better word.  I've been training to do this for the past year and a half and now is the time to get off the fence and commit.  

So I put in my planner to e-mail the coach I want to work with on Feb 1.  

Well SHE e-mailed ME first on January 30 to set up our first meeting.  I figured that was a sign that I was really supposed to do this.  She is someone I really respect and admire.  I am nervous about our meeting, but this is something I want to do and I'm just going to keep on keeping on!

It looks like I'm really going to do this!

Fasting and Praying

Mark Batterson challenged us to double circle our prayers with fasting.  I've never fasted from food before, so I decided to do a fast on Sunday Feb. 9.  This date is very special because it marks 5 years to the day when I turned my back on the legalistic teachings of my religious upbringing and embarked upon my relationship with Christ.

It marks 5 years to the day when I stepped into my faith community and heard the Bishop say 

"The purpose of a church is to RESTORE the sinner, NOT DESTROY THEM."  

I was SHOCKED. All I had ever heard in church was that we were going to go to Hell if we didn't follow the rules.  I also saw the evidence of destroyed lives that all of the false teaching had produced.

I was also shocked to see an active, vital, and MOVING spirit in a church.  It was indescribable.  All that has happened in the past 5 years has just been amazing.  I have been saved, delivered, and blessed beyond measure.

So to celebrate I am going to fast from sunup to sundown.  I also want to hear what God has to say about this next phase of my life.

4 weeks down, 2 to Go

Lord Jesus, I am so thankful.  I have gotten A LOT out of this past 4 weeks.

Like the song we sang last week in church said:

Spirit on the inside 

Working on the Outside

O what a change in my Life!

To God be the Glory!