Intervention: A refugee and brother in Christ has a critical heart problem and severe depression with no insurance. Answer: The Lord has taken care of things. Kyar… now has insurance and is now taking medication for his heart problem. He seems to be overcoming the severity of his depression too.
Mentoring: A brother in Jesus seems to be blocked emotionally and is recently married. Answer: The block has loosened up some and the marriage seems to be stabilizing more.
Investing:
- Family: Answer: Our marriage has strengthened over the summer and our daughters are figuring out life within the Lord’s sanctification process.
- Networking: Answer: The Character Mentor Network and the Refugee and Immigrant Network is still a work in process. Significant steps moving forward have take place since the Covid crisis. Praise the Lord!
- Mentoring Refugee Young Leaders: Answer: Last Friday (Sept.4, 2020) at the Refugee leaders meeting we received full commitment from them for this years ministry plan. We continue to train them so they can minister without us.
- Preparation for teaching and presentations:Answer: So far so good.
Thank you for your prayers!
Russ & Roswitha
Prayer encouragement from a faithful friend on prayer:
Dear friends,
I decided I might need a refresher course about prayer the Lord hears and honors. These are just SOME of the verses I found, but enough to convince me that my search for BALANCE was really a search for safety. The only thing off balance …is me. I may be in danger of wanting more to be liked than to be faithful (Tom Nelson) and Spurgeon, speaking of the church : “Either the wheat chokes the weeds or the weeds choke the wheat”.
Thank you for your prayer again, read and reread … and your sound counsel (“If we remain silent what will continue?”) My mindset to “pray without ceasing” is strengthened and as we continue to ask the Lord to establish the Refugee Discipleship Network, we can be confident it will most certainly be accomplished.
My devotional—“The real victory in service is won in secret beforehand by prayer. Service is gathering up the result”
Returning ALL praise to Him for the victory on it’s way to you… in the Powerful Name of our Savior
Thanks again Sherri Smith for this encouraging word:
“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”- Mark 11:24(KJV)
Reviewing conditions for believing and receiving (Life App Bible NIV)
1. You must be a believer
2. You must not hold a grudge against another person
3. You must not ask with selfish motives
4. Your request must be good for God’s kingdom. To pray effectively, you need faith in God, not the object of your request. If you focus only on your request, you will be left with nothing if your request is refused.
“Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”- Matt 7: 7-8 (KJV)
“And whatever you ask in prayer, you shall receive, if you have faith”- Matt 21:22 (ESV)
“Whatever you ask in My Name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”- John 14:13 (ESV)
“Until now, you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”. –John 16:24
“And this is the confidence we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him”- 1 John 5: 14-15 (ESV)
“But let him ask Him in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways”- James 1: 6-8 (ESV)
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”- John 15:7(ESV)
“And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him”- 1 John 3:22(ESV)
“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven”- Matt 18:19 (ESV)
“Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘ Be taken up and thrown into the sea’, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him”- Mark 11:23 (ESV)
“Delight yourself in the Lord , and He will give you the desires of your heart”- Ps 37:4(ESV)
Charles Spurgeon (from his message “The conditions of power in prayer”)… found on You Tube…this is bare bones, SO much content I just hit the high spots
The prerequisites are:
1. A childlike obedience (we keep His commandments)
2. A yielding spirit (an eye to His pleasure)
3. A childlike trust (in proportion to our faith in Christ)
4. A childlike love (For Him and each other) his quote: “Love will form the prayer” – selfishness can’t be trusted with unlimited power in prayer… it must bless others.
5. childlike ways (dwelling in Him produces Holy desires in line with His will )(Matt 6:33)
6. A childlike spirit (a spirit of adoption)—his quote: “when God leads His children to pray, He has already set in motion a wheel that is to produce the result prayed for…
7. A childlike confidence (” Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, THEN we have confidence before God”)—1 John 3:21(KJV)…
