The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying.
He fears nothing from prayerless studies,
prayerless work and prayerless religion.
He laughs at our toil,
mocks our wisdom,
but trembles when we pray.
~Samuel Chadwick
Well this concluding post seems a bit overdue. But nonetheless, here it is.
I know that we as Christian Bloggers pray.
I mean, after all that’s what Christians do, right?
I mean, Jesus intercedes for us and is our example, so as sure as I’m breathing,
alive and following Him I am praying for others.
But life is busy and distracting.
Can I get an “Amen”?
When I realized how many bloggers I was actually following, my heart was stirred.
It had been on my heart to be more purposeful in praying.
I like to plan strategies and goals in my spiritual life- it must be the Personal Trainer in me.
(Don’t ask about my own physical fitness as of late though, puhleeze!)
I decided to make a “plan of action” and enlist
anyone else who was interested
to join me. This had both selfish and unselfish motives. (?)
I thought others might really have a heart for this-
and felt nudging to invite them and trust God for that.
I also knew, if I did not incorporate the accountability
(even just knowing that others had committed to doing this)
it would be easy to …well, let’s just say- get sidetracked.
I am an expert “Sidetracker” with too many ideas in my brain.
I need a little reigning in at times.
And accountability.
(Don’t hold me to that.)
Ha!
Well, I set the ambitious 31 Day Challenge and two others committed to join me.
Many of you joined in with praying as we went and I thank you for doing so.
I know many of you pray for your fellow bloggers but this was more of
a purposeful commitment challenge.
Trust me, it got challenging.
If you want to see the enemy move in, as well as your own fleshly, natural tendency to resist God’s will despite “good intentions” just go ahead and decide you want to pray faithfully for anyone- or do anything for the glory of God.
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak
Matthew 26:41
But guess who is bigger, badder, better, fighting for us and on and by our side?
Yup.
Our Man, God and King,
who gets all the Glory because He is worthy:
Jesus.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Romans 8:34
The way I decided to tackle this, after creating the initial list, was to pick a scripture passage to reflect and then springboard off, writing out a prayer based on what I read and from what I know about the blogger. I would then send it via e-mail to them.
I decided against a blog post devoted to the blogger because I was afraid it would become about me and making a post more than a prayer before God. I just know my tendencies and weakness, although initially I wanted to do that- after praying, I knew that was not the way God wanted me do do it for the above stated reasons.
The other thing I did was to just put a shout out on my Facebook page with a link to the Blog site and name of the blogger I was praying for to invite others to lift them up with me.
For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
Matthew 18:20
Honestly, it was a true challenge to meet this 31 days of praying for just one blogger a day-
Purposefully, focused and in a way that I wanted to invite God to lead, direct and guide.
I finished a week late.
I sometimes found it difficult to focus, and would put it off until later,
then was battling fatigue.
You know friends, the enemy does not want you or I to pray.
If you commit to pray,
prepare yourself for a battle.
Because it is God’s first line of defense and call to action.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12
“No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil;
not that he practices it, but he suffers from it.”
Guy H. King
“The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.”
F.B. Meyer
I want to offer a special thank you to Melanie from Only A Breath who
graciously created and gave freely our beautiful badge/button!
I will attempt The Bloggers Prayer Project again and invite you to link.It will be different then last time and I think more realistic and user friendly! We can cover the Blogosphere in prayer together, friends! One blogger at a time!
 |
| My office closet doors with name prompts of Bloggers for Round 1! |
Enthusiastically, Dawn 
8 responses to “Lessons, Insights And Concluding Thoughts: The Bloggers Prayer Project”
Thank you for doing this, and for praying for me! Praise God for the victory!
LikeLike
Dawn, you are so right when you say, “If you commit to pray, prepare yourself for a battle.” It is the first thing God expects us to do, and often the last thing we think of doing!
LikeLike
I think it's not just prayer, but anything we commit to do that aligns with God's will that brings on the attacks.
LikeLike
You are amazing my friend. I struggled, after I gave up doing the daily post. Life got busy and I found myself forgetting to pray. It was hard and something I took on in a very busy season of my life. I would love to do this again. He is wanting me to continue praying, to be intentional. Thank you for stirring my heart in this way.
LikeLike
One of my goals lately has been to be more purposeful in everything, but in particular, prayer and time with the Lord. Thank you for this inspiration and timely reminder!Thanks also for stopping and commenting on the interview today. I appreciate your support and kind words. :)Blessings,Karen
LikeLike
I think this is an amazing project you took on, Dawn, an I feel so blessed to have been one of the recipients in your first group!I am so glad that you will be doing this again.One thing I would encourage you to incorporate into your next round is to ask a few bloggers who feel led to do so to pray for you and the other bloggers who sign up during the project. I think having your own prayer team to help cover you during this process would be a great blessing not only to you and the other prayer warriors, but would also be a way to get additional bloggers involved who feel led to pray but who may feel unable to commit to praying to 30 bloggers for whatever reason.I love the F B Meyer quote and will have to record that for future use.Have a blessed weekend and thank you for sharing this with us at Friendship Friday!Create With Joyhttp://create-with-joy.com
LikeLike
Dawn, thank you for taking on this wonderful project!! I am so grateful that you included me in the first group!! I have printed and saved the prayer you sent. I am glad to hear you will be doing this project again and am already praying about if God would have me get involved. One area, I know He is calling me to do is share more of my faith on and through my blog. I am still not sure how or when it is His plan for me to start but I know He will guide me and show me the time!! Thank you so much for the time you spend sharing your faith and your heart!! Blessings and Hugs!!
LikeLike
I loved doing this, Dawn, and never would have considered doing it myself if you hadn't thought to invite us. I did finish, on time, but oh mylanta was it a challenge! Like you, I picked verses and wrote out a prayer and emailed them. I had contacted each of them beforehand to see if they had specifics they wanted me to pray for, etc….I'm thinking I'll do this again come fall. But like you, different. You let me know when you've decided how you'll go about it! Right now, I'm considering posting a blogger's button on my sidebar each week sharing the one I'm praying for that week. And then sometime during the week, I'll email them a prayer…Hugs to you, Dawn! And thank you for stirring my heart.
LikeLike