Learning to be Strong in God

I can't express how glad and fortunate I am to have you willing to pray for me. All of you had a lot longer walk with Christ and a lot deeper relationship with God than I do. Realization of the fact that persons like you are supporting me in various ways on this mission keeps me grounded in Christ and makes me more humble in Him.

I have two prayer requests at this moment.

One -

1 Corinthians 1:27 - "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong"

We are joining a retreat that the Campus Crusade in Hyderabad is having during our Mission Trip. They asked me to share Word on a couple of topics. Without asking me to choose the topics, they chose topics for me and put me on schedule, and sent out the flyers -:). When I looked at the topics, first, I was little frightened and then laughed at myself in Christ. The topics they chose for me are: "Finances" and "Praying with Power".

If I had to list the areas that I'm week the most in, exactly, these two topics would be the top 2.  You can verify that with my wife who knows me the best.

Yesterday, as I and Autumn were helping with kids in AC at K2, the memory verse for kids was,
Ephesians 6:10 - "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power."

I don't know about kids, but it spoke to me well -:).

When I started gathering material to prepare the Word on these topics, I realized that, more than anything else, God wanted to strengthen me in these areas.

How amazing it is to walk with Christ. I'm very glad that He is not the god whom I used to server and with whom all I had was a conditional give-and-take relationship, but He is the God with whom I could have an ever growing love relationship through which I will keep getting strengthened and become more and more like Him. What an amazing God we have and what an amazing gift we have through Jesus.

So, please pray for me that God guides me and leads me in preparing and delivering message on these two topics.

Two -

To confess one thing, in fact, if there is one group of people that I struggle to connect with, that is Indians. It would sound strange, but it is true. Please don't take me wrong, and I'm not trying to generalize it. But, it may be because, while growing up, I was surrounded by individuals who often talked down on others on their backs and who were culturally prideful and hypocrites, and, personally, me being one of them, it haunts me back now. I feel being judged and feel week in their presense. It is very evident whenever we go on a random evangelism on campus. I'm way comfortable in sharing Gospel to students from any country except India.

I do really struggle connecting with Indians in Christ. I'm serious. I shared this with few before. I always talked to Autumn about this.

When the Angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and asked him to go, his response was
Judges 6:15 - "My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
Judges 6:16 - "The LORD answered, "I will be with you,"

So, please pray for me that God goes with me in this trip and, guides me, leads me and strengthens me in every step I take in this entire trip.

Again, it is my privilige and I'm so honored to be able to connect with you in Christ in Spirit. What an amazing relationship we have through becoming One in Him.

God bless,

Naveen