The Prayer Project Challenge #5 Sign Up: Restoring Hope In Our Youth



And we're back with the 5th challenge of The Prayer Project 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge. I can't believe that we are already on challenge 5! I want to extend a sincere thank you to all who have participated in these challenges since January/challenge 1. Everyone who has jumped on the bandwagon during these last 9 months, thank you as well for your participation and support!

Now let's get into this month's challenge details. (Sign-up below)

For the last few months my heart has been extremely heavy because of recent events concerning our youth and adolescents. It seems as if every time I look at the news I am hearing about another kidnapping, or a shooting, or a killing, or a teen being murdered...So many stories have been surfacing regarding our young that my heart has been continually heavy for them. I can only imagine what is going on through the minds of the many children who are watching these stories as well.

With all of these terrible events happening, my concern really has been for the hearts of our youth. I am constantly concerned not only for their physical well being and safety, but even more so their emotional and mental well being. So many odds are against them. With all that is going on in our society, imagine how easy it is for them to lose hope and develop fear.

It is mainly our jobs as adults and as their guardians to reassure them that they are loved, protected and secure. I want our children to continue to hope and dream, I want to restore peace and security in their hearts and remove any fear they have of growing up. God loves them and has purposely placed them in our lives to care for and to help mold. He has specific plans for them too!

With this being said, it is my hope that you would come together and join me in praying for our children and teenagers. The battle we are fighting in trying to keep them physically and emotionally safe and healthy can't be won on our own. We have to get down on our knees and seek the One who gave them to us. For God alone knows each of them and has the power to keep them safe and strong as their little hearts and minds continue to develop and grow.

Will you join me?

“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them." - Mark 10:14b-16(NLT)

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Theme for September: Pray for a child or a teenager.

How to Participate:

  • Choose a specific child or teenager that God places on your heart to dedicate 30 days of prayer to. Do not inform the child/teen 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 or when you choose, present the child/teen 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 pry for a group of children/teens or generally pray for all children and teens please feel free to do that.)

Challenge #5 of The Prayer Project 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge will begin September 1, 2014.
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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


The Prayer Project Challenge #4 Sign Up: Turning The Other Cheek



We are approaching our fourth challenge of The Prayer Project! I am beyond excited for this particular challenge as I believe that it will be the most difficult yet most impactful. 

For the month of July we will come together once again and intercede on behalf of individuals that God places on our hearts. This month I am challenging you to pray for someone who has hurt you. This may be a friend, a sibling, a parent, a spouse, a boyfriend, a girlfriend etc. Anyone who may have betrayed you or hurt you in a way where you may have found it hard to forgive; or maybe you haven't yet forgiven them. 

You may be asking, "Why in the world should I pray for someone who has/had no concern for me? They did me wrong, why do they deserve my prayers?" Let's see what Jesus has to say.

"But if you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you." - Luke 6:27-28 (NLT)

If Jesus asked us to pray for those who hurt us, there has to be a reason why we should right? During this challenge we will further discuss why Jesus asks us to do this. (Sign up to receive emails below.)

Holding on to hurt or bitterness toward an individual does you more harm than it does them. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, the effects of dealing with hurt, especially if it was from someone close to you, can be very damaging if dealt with improperly. Releasing that hurt through prayer is symbolic of handing over the burden of that hurt and casting it onto God. Imagine the peace you could have by praying for the very person that tried to destroy you. Imagine God's power healing the heart of someone who tried to ruin you as a result of your prayers. 

This challenge is indeed the most difficult so far, but I believe that together we can overcome the hurt that may be holding us back from receiving all that God has in store for us. Join us on this journey of freedom, peace, forgiveness and tough but rewarding love.

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Theme for July: Pray for someone who has hurt you or someone you know.

How to Participate:

  • Choose a person (that has hurt you or someone you know) that God places 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.
(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.)

Challenge #4 of The Prayer Project 30 Day Written Prayer Challenge will begin July 1, 2014.
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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. If you have already signed up for a previous challenge, no need to sign up again. If you haven't

When Passion Meets Purpose

So let's have an honesty hour...

With the growth of the project I started at the top of this year in January, The Prayer Project, my mind has been filled with new ideas to get it to grow, expand and flourish. I recently have been overwhelmed with my many ideas of turning this project into a business. Although having these thoughts are perfectly normal and fine, I really have to take a step back and remember why I started this project in the first place. So I'm taking a moment to check my heart and correct any selfish motives behind its growth.

I didn't start The Prayer Project for the purpose of turning it into a business. Not at all. Money was the furthest thing in my mind. I began this movement because I saw a need. I saw a heartbreaking need that I knew I wanted to help with. God opened my eyes and put a burning fire in my heart filled with intense compassion and desire to contribute to a change. I knew then that I couldn't be afraid anymore. I had to do it. I had to listen to and answer the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit impressing on my heart how He's prepared me for this.


When I think of why I started The Prayer Project, I'm reminded how sad I felt for those with broken hearts that had grown cold; for those who had never experienced the warmth of God's love through the people surrounding them. I remember believing that I had something worth sharing that could help. I remember feeling overcome with excitement that God had given me something to offer.

It saddens me that so many of us are lost. We don't know how to love. We are subconsciously relying on the poor examples of love that we see on TV and in our homes not knowing that these poor examples are singlehandedly destroying us and our relationships. Some of us don't even understand what it means to be selfless or even kind. 


These are things that break my heart. 

 

I see people "cutting people off" left and right, treating relationships and people as possessions and commodities that are interchangeable, as long as it benefits them. We don't know what it means to serve or to put others before ourselves. We have completely lost and overlooked what Jesus taught us was MOST important (John 15:12). Our hearts are a mess because if it. 

 

THIS is why I started The Prayer Project. 

 

My passion is to contribute to changing people's tainted perspective of love and helping reinstitute Jesus' example of what love is and how we are to love others.

My prayer for this project is to reach the unreachable. To build a community of intercessors to be the extension, the hands and feet, of Jesus' heart; sharing with the closed-hearted and cold-hearted His perfect and transforming love in efforts to break open their hearts to receive all that Jesus Christ has for them. As a result, I pray that this will create a ripple effect, where more people are reached by gentle acts of genuine Christly love, recognize God's immense love for them and do the same for others. 


My prayer is that hearts are changed and made whole, broken relationships are restored and that love, God's love, begins to rule in more hearts and more homes and will ultimately draw the unsaved to salvation.

By Christ's love, all of this is possible.

I recognize and am in constant awe of the power in God's love. It was God's love that saved me. Saved me from myself and saved me from living a life of ruins. It is God's love that continues to rescue me, over and over again. And for this reason alone, it my life's mission to share that with as many people as I can.

This is why this project is so near and dear to me. This is my personal reminder. I've written this here so that I will never forget, no matter how large or small The Prayer Project becomes, the reason I've started this project.

Love.

 

"Dear Children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions." 

- 1John 3:18 (NLT)