Challenge in Patience Update 3 - 180 degrees

Psalm 5:8

   "8 Lead me in the right path, O Lord,
or my enemies will conquer me.
Make your way plain for me to follow."

I'm about a week late writing this update, but it's taken me that long to come up with a verse that even remotely says what I'm feeling right now!

For the most part, I no longer have any daily contact with any of my "patience peeps", so writing an update becomes more difficult, until I remember what it is I'm doing. I started this challenge based on a "blurb" I heard on the radio where the speaker was talking about his daughter taking up the cause for 5 of her non-saved friends and the results she got. As I'm entering my fourth month of praying for these people, I am beginning to see that it may not be for THEM that I was meant to do this challenge, but more for myself.

I have learned so much about consistency in prayer in this last three-four months. I have had a lot of things going on in my personal life that have tried to crowd out this prayer time. But as I "power" through my time of praying I'm starting to see how MY life is changing. I'M the one who is learning how to never stop praying as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 teaches me to do, I'M the one that has gotten to the point that I don't feel as if my prayer time is complete if I don't pray for these precious people. I am also the one who is feeling closer to God because I'm learning to pray for others.

It amazes me how I've learned that, a few short months ago, I would pray for at least one of these people but it was sort of on a hit or miss basis. Now I'm finding that it has become important to me what happens to them, and not just from a "success" stand point either. I want them to know Christ, yes, but I also want them to grow. I'm not really sure how to explain that one well, but I think it's evolved from "get them saved" to "how can I help them grow in life in general?" As I was praying the night my notice to write this blog came up, it was as if God pointed all of this out to me. He showed me how much easier it is to pray for others now that I've practiced it; He showed me that I don't have to have immediate responses for ANY of my prayers, and He's shown me the next step in a real relationship, a kind of give and take conversation with Him.

I have been truly blessed through this whole challenge, and I'm just over half way through. I can't wait to see what surprises God has in store for my "peeps" or me, for that matter! I love that I'm learning and growing all the time...and I love that God is so creative about showing me how to do that growing! Thank You Jesus!