Thank you, Builders, for every time you have prayed, given, or promoted on behalf of Greenhouse.

During October and early November, most Greenhouse families will be involved with our annual Serve-a-Thon. Pray as each team selects a service project. Pray as they seek fundraising partners; pray for wisdom in knowing who to approach and favorable responses. Pray as team members serve side-by-side and build community. Pray that the beneficiaries at the various service sites will be blessed by the work done on their behalf.

During the Serve-a-Thon, many of us realize afresh that we prefer helping to being helped. The vulnerability of neediness is discomforting if we are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as strong. In 2 Corinthians, Paul recounts how that he pleaded three times for the Lord to remove a “thorn in his flesh.” Let’s prayerfully consider his words.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)

But [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In what areas of your life are you aware that you are weak or powerless? Pray that the power of the Christ will rest upon you at those points of weakness. Can you say, as Paul does, that you are content with hardships, calamities, insults, persecutions and the like? Ask the Spirit of the Lord to show you how to hold them with contentment “for Christ’s sake.” Pray that in your weakness you will experience His strength this month, and find that His grace is indeed sufficient.