Shakopee Team Project

Dear Prayer Team,

This month’s Time To Pray theme has been Seeking Him.  As I was experiencing prayer and praying with the group this last Thursday evening we were focusing on 1 Chronicles 16:8-11.  Verse 11 calls us to ‘look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.’  As we were praying over that verse and asking forgiveness for all the things we yearn for, forgetting to seek the Lord, it struck me that there were only three people in the entire world that noticed the star and followed it to Jesus.  Three. 

It seems that the difficulties of yearning for and seeking the Lord we experience in our busy, technologically savvy world have been around for thousands of years.  There has never been a better, simpler time that made serving Christ easier.  Every generation has had it’s own problems, it’s own substitutions for seeking Christ constantly.

In this last week leading up to Christmas, where is your focus?  What are you yearning for?  On what does your mind linger?  Is it the self-imposed responsibilities and expectations, the stress of getting everything just right this holiday season?  Is it yearning to be somewhere else or with someone else or for the perfect gift?  Is it the face of Jesus? 

We pray a blessing over you.  That the peace of Christ would be upon you as you focus your mind on the face of Him.  That the things of earth would grow dim and the star would shine bright as you seek Him.

We are praising the Lord this month:

• for God’s power and presence alive in the church and it’s ministries
• for a renewed sense of church growth and ministry passion
• for new financial partners to help Renew meet its ministry needs as we grow
• for such an amazing year!  God is good!

We ask you to join us in praying for:

• us to understand our next steps for church growth and ministry effectiveness
• the Community Prayer Service on Christmas Eve to be attended by people from the community that God wants to bless and that people attending would experience the love and power of God through prayer.  Please pray for Kristi and Matt who are leading this service, that God fills them each with the Holy Spirit and intuitively will know how to best lead this prayer time.
• the church to be able to support one another and be ready to help people in the community with their needs.  The holidays are a tough time for many people.
• Matt and all of us who struggle with this- When the pigs ran over the cliff into the water when Jesus healed the demoniac it always bugged me… what did the pigs do? The point is, in that community the pigs represented economic ability/ stability. Jesus was possibly getting at the MORE important issue of who were they going to trust… unfortunately they sent Him away, I hope I can get this lesson right in my life. Stability and financial security are good, but they are secondary to trusting Jesus and even further down the list when it comes to what is lasting, with true value in this life.

Thank you for your continued care and support of this ministry.  May God bless you in your ministries in the coming year!

Kristin

 

⁸O give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known His doings among the peoples!

    ⁹Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His wondrous works and devoutly praise them!

    ¹⁰Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!

    ¹¹Seek the Lord and His strength; yearn for and seek His face and to be in His presence continually!

1 Chronicles 16:8-11 (Amplified Bible)