In Love with Ohrid

It is INCREDIBLE that God has sent me to a place covered in so much beauty and steeped in so much history. Every day, whether in snow or in sunshine, I am awed by the beauty of this place. Mostly I am awed by the fact that God has allowed me to live here and love here.

Along with my team and cluster, I have been trying to spend this month in a more focused intentional time of prayer for the needs around me. Last week, I spent my laundry-folding time listening to some sermons on prayer. I listened to one called "Pray Desperately" by David Platt (Do you know him? You need to. Google him or look up Brook Hills Church in Alabama. Good stuff.) Here are only a few things that I gleaned from that sermon:
"Great things happen not when we come up with plans and strategies but when we fall on our faces and say, "We need you to do it, O God, for your glory." This seems obvious if we understand the Gospel. We can't do it on our own. We can never be good enough. We can never love hard enough. We can not change hearts no matter what great plans we have. Only the blood of Jesus brings reconciliation. I know that, and yet I often get caught up in my great plan. And forget to pray desperately.

"The church in Acts grew because of grace and it is emphasized over and over because the ONE who gives the grace gets the glory."

"So many ask 'why is prayer necessary?' You may not say those words, but we are saying it with our lives. We ask that because we don't need prayer when we are watching tv or mindlessly surfing the internet...--when there is nothing at stake in your walk with Christ--when there is no risk--when it consists of a monotonous routine week in and week out. BUT when you risk everything to glorify Jesus, you need prayer. When we sacrifice job, career, reputation, family, EVERYthing to share the gospel day in and day out, we need prayer. When we enter into a battle we will need prayer."

So, this week, I am praying that we, you and me, will risk it all for the sake of the glory of Christ Jesus and that we will 'get' our absolute desperation without Him and that we will seek Him and His kingdom desperately.