Day 2 - A New Dark Continent

Taken from La Fontana (Zach and Naomi's blog)

Verse of the day: “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.” – Hosea 13:6
Reading of the day: Luke 12:13-21
Thoughts for the prayer of the day: “Secularism is indeed strong in Europe, with more than two-thirds of survey respondents in countries such as Britain and France telling Gallup pollsters that religion is not important to them.” – TIME’s top 10 list of 2009 has secularism in Europe as its #1 Religion story of the year.
”In order to survive, Europe needs a critical acceptance of its Christian culture. Europe seems, in the very moment of its greatest success, to have become empty from the inside. Crippled, as it were,” – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
”It is a very slow, creeping decay. When the sun is shining, as it has on Europe for so long since the war, people feel they don’t need God,” Winfried Roehmel, Archdiocese of Munich
Please pray for the tide to change in Europe and for hearts to be softened to the Lord’s calling.  “So, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” – Hebrews 3:7-8

Lord, this is just what I was trying to convey last night at home group.  That what/whom we consider to be poor because of what they do not have, may in fact be truly rich because of you.  After my time in Haiti it was evident to me that the Haitian people though they may have lost all of their possessions and even their loved ones did not consider themselves poor if they had a relationship with You.  For, You provided them with unexplainable joy and peace in the midst of their horrible circumstances and they lived lives that proved that they were indeed far richer than I have ever been.

Lord, we need You to change the hearts and perhaps the circumstances of those who are living here in Europe or in other 1st World lands that have lost a sense of needing You to meet their needs, to be their joy and their hope.  Perhaps what is needed is a loss of security that we can take care of our own needs and desires with the swipe of a credit card or the right job or connections.  This is a scary thing to ask, because life here is comfortable, but it is necessary to ask because life here is void of Your presence, Your hope, Your joy, and the eternal security that we can only have in relationship with You.  So, I guess what I am asking is that if need be you would make us poor so that we can become rich.

Amen