prayer request

prayed for

This week at church we’re having a youth week of prayer. As a part of that, tonight our leader asked for an older adult and a young person to pair off, and the older person was to pray for the younger. It’s a wonderful thing to be prayed for by an older person–a wiser person person in general. My person has one of the warmest, deliberate voices I’ve ever heard, and her hands were so soft as they wrapped themselves around mine. I can still smell her perfume between my fingers. 

To hear someone ask God to bless you and keep you safe, and guide you and show you what to do, is an awesome feeling. I don’t think we pray for each other enough though. Do we know how to pray for others? I once had a friend who said she felt so inadequate while she was doing her nightly prayers. She felt that there were so many things and people to pray for, that she could never get them all in, so after a while of praying, she’d just say, “You know the rest." 

I agree that sometimes it seems like the prayer list can seem so long. You have to pray for all the stuff going on in your life, and all the stuff going on in others’ lives who have asked you to pray for them, and even those who haven’t asked. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fallen asleep during my own prayers before. But why does prayer seem so tedious sometimes? We should feel privileged to come before the Creator of the universe and everything in it, who has allowed us to come before Him with boldness, but we waste it sometimes. 

So I guess my final question is: how can we get past ourselves to pray?

distractions, distractions

Satan provides so many distractions that make it so easy for us to fall away from God, preventing us from purposely taking time out of our day to even say a simple “thank you.”

Does anyone else struggle with this? I started the year so well, but not even two weeks in, I find myself saying, “I’ll do it later,” knowing good and well later will never come. I have to try harder not to slink into laziness and the “there’s always tomorrow” attitude, and this is with everything.

Since December, I’ve been working on a project that I hope to have completed and ready for the public eye and ear by August or September, and it’s going to be awesome. I need your prayers and thoughts to be that I will keep God first and constant in my life so I can stay on the right path to resist the enemy, and keep being led by His spirit to claim that which is for me. Thank you

– destinie

thank you for my life

I feel like I should have something profound to say since it’s a new year; but I don’t. I’m just glad it’s over. This past year has been trying, to say the least. I lost a friend to the grave, many other ‘friends’ walked away when I needed them most, family bickering over simple things…but in the end, I have nothing to say but thank You for my life. I could been dead like so many other people, but for some reason I’m still here. I hate that I’ve been wasting life on trivial things and causing so much anxiety and stress on myself, but I can’t help it. I pray that this year, I will really just let go and give it all to God, my prayer is happiness and love, which I feel has been lacking in my life: giving and receiving. Satan has tried to destroy me so many times this year, and put doubt in my heart about the power of the God that I serve, but I can’t do that. I thank you for my life….

Here’s my song for the new year. Please take a listen, and a moment to thank God.

break every chain

Sunday I played a song at a fundraising rally that my aunt organizes for her church every year. I sang, “All I Can Say” by the David Crowder*Band in memory of my deceased friend. She had come with me the previous year. When I told the audience her story I heard a unified, “awwww,” which made me feel weird—like I was being pitied. After this I began the opening chords. As the song progressed I really felt it, it wasn’t the best I’d ever performed, but it was my best at the time. And like the song says, that’s all I could give at that moment.  But it went well, and on the second verse I heard the bluesy wah of the lead join in with me and the drums followed, lightly tapping the snare and cymbal. When I finished,everyone gave me a standing ovation; at least most everyone. It’s kind of a blur since I tend to look away when I finish a performance, somehow not looking into the audiences faces after a performance means they can’t see me (I hate being in the spotlight. I know, I know…why am I doing this then?).

After I sat, it was time for the choir sing. The lead singer started singing with the most powerful, melodic voice you’d ever want to hear. She dug deep, yet made it look and sound so effortless. As “Break Every Chain” echoed though the walls of the building some called out—amens, hallelujahs, clapping—but I just sat. I sat and I thought. I thought about my friend. I realized that her death, even though it happened a while ago is still a chain on my life that needs to be broken. I miss her a lot. Sitting there, having this realization, I was about to cry, but I stopped myself—foolish pride. I thought,If I let myself cry right now, I know I’ll feel better. But I hate crying—especially in front of people. So I resolved to just sit and listen and hold it in. I wish I could have let go at that moment; let go of every burden on my life that I keep saying I want to give to God, that I keep praying I want to give up, but still hold on to when it’s all said and done. It all comes down to pride. Right now, pride must cease. Things would be so much better if pride were a thing that sin never brought into existence. 

—destinie