You go first!

"Then King David said to the whole assembly: “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God. With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God—gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble—all of these in large quantities. Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: three thousand talents of gold and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings,
for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the Lord?”

Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king's work gave willingly. They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron. Any who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite.
The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly." 1 Chron 29:1-9

Here's something to try...

Can you think of anything around you, that you would change? Do you know how you would change it?

If you can answer that (which hopefully everyone can) I challenge you to make that change this week. Step up and be the leader. Be the initiater of the change. David stepped up and gave all sorts of resources to the temple his son was about to build. Shortly after this, the ENTIRE nation of Israel followed his lead. And if you are in a position of leadership, remember your followers do as you do. The whole nation rejoiced at the generosity of their leadership....

I wonder what the church would do if it's leaders gave as generously as they "encourage" their congregations to give.

What can you change? And will you be the first?

Prayer

I have a question for those of you who actually still read blogs :) I've slacked off a bit. When you pray, do you pray as if God might answer your prayer, believing He can if it's in His "will" or if He wants, or knowing He will come through for you since you are His child? It was a thought I got during small group a couple weeks back and I thought I'd pose the question to all of you out there who are much more wise than I. Do you have scripture as to how to pray? I find myself praying the "safe" prayer of "God do what you need in this situation" or something similar to that. But it seems to me that lacks a bit of faith in God's power. Of course He's going to do what He needs. He's God. He doesn't need me to ask Him to do something. I heard someone say one time that God "waits" for someone to ask Him to show up powerfully, and that seems like a prayer of believing He WILL.

Just some thoughts. Suggestions as to how to sort this out? How do you pray most of the time? I want to have the faith to believe He will come through in each and every miracle I pray for, but I don't want to look like a fool for praying for something "outside of God's will". And I'm probably making this way more confusing than it should be, but that's how my brain works :)