{"id":27,"date":"2009-12-03T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T02:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/03\/advent-challenge\/"},"modified":"2009-12-03T20:58:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-04T02:58:00","slug":"advent-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/03\/advent-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Now that we are in the Advent season, I would like to issue myself a challenge. Prayer was never something that came easy for me. Still at times it can be difficult to give prayers of thanks when getting caught up in all the muck of daily life. I know I have a choice of how I want to see my life and even the world. I could choose to look at it as half empty or half full. This also goes with prayer as well.<\/p>\n

Prayer can and does work. God will change your life through prayer. He wants to have that relationship with us. As God has grown me in my faith, he has made it easier for me to pray directly to him or the Holy Spirit. However, at one point in time it was very difficult to pray to something\/someone that I could not relate to. God had always seems more of an enigma than anything else. God came down in human form as Jesus, so now we have a physical person that we can relate to, when we pray. God always has a plan that includes us, so let\u2019s include him in our lives.<\/p>\n

So, here is the challenge I take, and I pray that that you will join me as well. I will daily pray, and pray multiple times a day to our God, through Jesus our Lord. When I pray, I will try to always give a two to one on thanks to each want\/problem. This way I will keep my prayer life half full or better, rather than half empty. To help remember this, I am going to put a small smiley face on my phone. This will help me to remember to pray, and to keep the prayers uplifting. Why my phone you ask? Maybe you did or did not, but I will tell you anyway. I don\u2019t carry a watch, but I do carry a phone. This is my watch, so when I check time, I will see the smiley face. When I get a phone call, I will see the smiley face. When I get email, I will see a smiley face. I think you see where I am going with this.<\/p>\n

I challenge myself and you to take this Advent challenge of a more prayerful life. While doing this, keeping my prayers uplifting and not half empty. I have already begun to pray and pray that you take on this challenge. Won\u2019t you join me?
Lord Jesus, there are many things that I can pray for help and guidance on, and you know what these are. Today, I thank you for the leaders in your Church. I thank you for the leaders at Trinity. Jesus, I thank you for what you have done on the cross, but most of all, what you still do today because of the cross. You are ever present in my life and I could not lead it, if it were not for you.<\/p>\n

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” \u2013 Philippians 4:13<\/p>\n

Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that we are in the Advent season, I would like to issue myself a challenge. Prayer was never something that came easy for me. Still at times it can be difficult to give prayers of thanks when getting caught up in all the muck of daily life. I know I have a choice of … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-admin","post-27","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2m6h5-r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3866,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2026\/07\/12\/confidence-in-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":27,"position":0},"title":"Confidence in the Gospel","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"July 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"7\/12\/2026 https:\/\/vimeo.com\/1209315222?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci Sermon Summary Action Items - Rev. Douglas Dill: Form a dedicated prayer group Organize and begin a prayer group charged specifically to pray for this congregation, the local community, and the call committee; identify meeting times, members, and prayer focus points and communicate this need to the congregation.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Baptism"","block_context":{"text":"Baptism","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/baptism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Confidence in the Gospel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sermon-1.png?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sermon-1.png?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sermon-1.png?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sermon-1.png?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1699,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2017\/01\/19\/forgive-us-our-sins-as-we-forgive-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":27,"position":1},"title":"Forgive Us Our Sins as We Forgive Others","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"January 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever stopped and really thought about the Lord's Prayer? \u00a0Even beyond that, have you ever thought about what you are asking God to do? \u00a0Especially when we are asked to be forgiven of our \"Debts\", \"Sins\", \"Trespasses\", whichever format of the Lord's Prayer you pray. 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Sunday, December 13, 2015 \u00a0Advent Third Sunday of Advent Year C Old Testament Zephaniah 3:14\u201320 New Testament Philippians 4:4\u20137 Gospel Luke 3:7\u201318 John\u2019s baptism is a break from how the Jews traditionally removed their sins.\u00a0 Once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Advent"","block_context":{"text":"Advent","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/advent\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1970,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2017\/12\/24\/god-does-and-comes-to-us-in-all-circumstances\/","url_meta":{"origin":27,"position":4},"title":"God does and comes to us, in all circumstances","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"December 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday, December 24, 2017 | Advent Fourth Sunday of Advent Year B On the same date: Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Eve Old Testament 2 Samuel 7:1\u201311, 16 Luke 1:46b\u201355 New Testament Romans 16:25\u201327 Gospel Luke 1:26\u201338 \u00a0 https:\/\/youtu.be\/BVbl-DOgRXk God comes to us even from the very beginning. 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