His Will Wednesday / Plus a Devotion

Prayer Request:

1. Mark's grandmother is in the hospital. Please pray for her health.

2. A friend from church, his grandmother went to the hospital yesterday also. Please pray for her.

3. Please continue to pray for Jonah, Kate, Lauren, Ryan and a few other anonymous people on my mind. God knows their needs, so just pray that God provide those needs to them.

4. As always, I always ask for big prayers for our children. Children of sickness, abuse, neglect, abandonment and unloved. They are loved. They are not forgotten. They matter. Be a voice for a child today in some way and if you can't be a voice, then pray for them.

5. Please pray for my blog friend Stacy, as today would have been her son's Isaac's first birthday. Pray as they continue to walk this journey in their lives.

Please leave your prayer request in the comments.

Today, I also added a little devotional by Rick Warren. I know one person specifically that may read this today and it be exactly what that person needed to hear. As well, it may be exactly what YOU needed to hear or be reminded.

Healing Choices: A Mind for Repentance

by Rick Warren

"Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think" (Romans 12:2 NLT).

Imagine riding in a speedboat on a lake with an automatic pilot set to go east. If you decide to reverse and head west, you have two possible ways to change the boat's direction. One way is to grab the steering wheel and physically force it to head in the opposite direction from where the autopilot is programmed to go.

By sheer willpower you could overcome the autopilot, but you would feel constant resistance. Your arms would eventually tire of the stress, you'd let go of the steering wheel, and the boat would instantly head back east, the way it was internally programmed.

This is what happens when you try to change you life with willpower: You say, "I'll force myself to eat less . . . exercise more . . . quit being disorganized and late."

Yes, willpower can produce short-term change, but it creates constant internal stress because you haven't dealt with the root cause. The change doesn't feel natural, so eventually you give up and quickly revert to your old habits and hang-ups.

There is a better and easier way: Change your autopilot--the way you think. The Bible says, "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think" (Romans 12:2 NLT).

The New Testament calls this mental shift repentance, which in Greek literally means "to change your mind." You repent whenever you change the way you think by adopting how God thinks--about yourself, sin, God, other people, life, your future, and everything else. You take on Christ's outlook and perspective.