Prayer is such a fickle thing. It's a our life line to God, our direct connection. He hears us, He even looks past our words and into our hearts to what we are really wanting and desiring. He knows the essence of why we are praying. Though we know what prayer looks like between God and His creation, how is prayer suppose to look like on our portion of the equation?
I first began to ponder on this long ago, I never thought I had a problem communicating with God. I would pray every night before I went to bed and prayed for help if I had any issues or situations during the day. But whats the problem with this? Prayer is meant to be much more than simple requests. Prayer is difficult. It soon became difficult for me when I analyzed my communication with Him. What was I asking? What was the content of my heart? What are my true motives of prayer? How often am I praying? What am I conversing with God about? It can be a challenge to communicate with a God, who honestly dosn't need you in any way, shape or form, including your thoughts and concerns towards Him and His Kingdom.
The beautiful thing about this though is that by God allowing us to be able to communicate with Him, is an example of Him actively pursuing and desiring a connection with His creation. Which gives us hope and encourages us to speak with Him about out concerns, thoughts, and even just our daily lives.
So again, how is our prayer life supposed to look? If our job as Christians is to be as much like God as possible, and God is actively pursuing use, then we should in part be doing the same. We in our day to day lives, schedules, and patterns must be communicating to God in confession, honesty, joy, and praise. But also we should be doing the same for the people in our lives as well.
Honestly interceding for others in prayer is probably the easiest and most important thing to do in our walk of Christian Spirituality. If we have people that we deeply care about, if we have children, or if we have a spouse, should it not be natural for us to lift those people up in prayer to God?
This has been a focus of mine in the previous weeks. That my prayer life should be edifying towards others and God, also including my confession and honesty in addition. Would you join me in this?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Haiti: Part 3/ Work
Often times I find myself in a power struggle with God. Me being the indefinite loser of all battles, wars, and skirmishes, of course. I have insecurities issues, which typically leads to me trying to prove myself in some way or another to show myself and others I am independent and capable. In case you didn't know you can't really do that with God. He is and will be infinitely in control and master of all things forever and ever, not I.
While in Guibert, our job was to build temporary schools for the village. They we're almost like stalls you would keep livestock in without the fences, or animals. . . We placed blackboard material on the insides so they could write on the walls without ruining them, and metal roofs to protect them from the rain. Because Haiti is a tropical climate, it rains almost constantly during the spring and summer. My team and I successfully built these schools in a remarkable 3 days, when we actually thought we would be working on them for the entire week.
To say the least I was proud of what I had accomplished, especially since growing up my family really didn't think I was made out for manual labor. I had proven my family wrong in that I was one of the two men on the team, and had done the majority of cutting and nailing the schools together. We soon gathered the rest of the members of the team who had been working on other things around the village. We sat under the schools and began to pray and sing praises to God. As we began to sing, it also began to rain. . . We in turn would try to sing louder than the rain, but for some reason it began to rain so hard on the metal roofs that we couldn't even hear our own voices. No matter how loud or hard we tried to out sing God, He showed us how beautiful He could sound with something with some as small and trivial as rain. We soon began to stop singing and sat and soaked ourselves in God's majesty. It was a humbling experience to say the least.
Soon after the rain subsided, we began to pray and give thanks to God for his glory, power, and mercy on us to be able to build something so important for someone else. Honestly I was still feeling as if I alone had accomplished the task by myself, even after God's deafening rain. But then I looked up toward the mountains, and to the valley that was between us. Even though it had stopped raining the clouds were still close by, and soon closed in on us. Before I knew it I was immersed in side a cloud. I couldn't see more than 3 feet in front of me, my clothes and body were completely soaked with the condensation of the cloud. My pride was crushed. God showed me how pathetic my little lean-to shack was to His cloud, composed of so much mystery and wonder that I could barely wrap my mind around it.
This moment in Haiti stood and stands out to me above almost all the other experiences. Just when I thought I knew God, and had him in the palm of my hand; God proved me wrong once again. I remember this "cloud experience" every time I think about starting a war with God. Sometimes it helps me to remember my place, and sometimes it doesn't, but all in all He revealed to me a minute portion of His wonder, mystery, and power that surpasses anything I could ever hope or dream to be. I find peace in knowing that there is a God in absolute control of my life.
While in Guibert, our job was to build temporary schools for the village. They we're almost like stalls you would keep livestock in without the fences, or animals. . . We placed blackboard material on the insides so they could write on the walls without ruining them, and metal roofs to protect them from the rain. Because Haiti is a tropical climate, it rains almost constantly during the spring and summer. My team and I successfully built these schools in a remarkable 3 days, when we actually thought we would be working on them for the entire week.
To say the least I was proud of what I had accomplished, especially since growing up my family really didn't think I was made out for manual labor. I had proven my family wrong in that I was one of the two men on the team, and had done the majority of cutting and nailing the schools together. We soon gathered the rest of the members of the team who had been working on other things around the village. We sat under the schools and began to pray and sing praises to God. As we began to sing, it also began to rain. . . We in turn would try to sing louder than the rain, but for some reason it began to rain so hard on the metal roofs that we couldn't even hear our own voices. No matter how loud or hard we tried to out sing God, He showed us how beautiful He could sound with something with some as small and trivial as rain. We soon began to stop singing and sat and soaked ourselves in God's majesty. It was a humbling experience to say the least.
Soon after the rain subsided, we began to pray and give thanks to God for his glory, power, and mercy on us to be able to build something so important for someone else. Honestly I was still feeling as if I alone had accomplished the task by myself, even after God's deafening rain. But then I looked up toward the mountains, and to the valley that was between us. Even though it had stopped raining the clouds were still close by, and soon closed in on us. Before I knew it I was immersed in side a cloud. I couldn't see more than 3 feet in front of me, my clothes and body were completely soaked with the condensation of the cloud. My pride was crushed. God showed me how pathetic my little lean-to shack was to His cloud, composed of so much mystery and wonder that I could barely wrap my mind around it.
This moment in Haiti stood and stands out to me above almost all the other experiences. Just when I thought I knew God, and had him in the palm of my hand; God proved me wrong once again. I remember this "cloud experience" every time I think about starting a war with God. Sometimes it helps me to remember my place, and sometimes it doesn't, but all in all He revealed to me a minute portion of His wonder, mystery, and power that surpasses anything I could ever hope or dream to be. I find peace in knowing that there is a God in absolute control of my life.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Rejoice
While taking a break from my Haiti series that I have recently started. I've moved back to Pearland for the summer, till August 12th to be exact. It's quite refreshing to be back, surrounded by friends, positive leaders, and fully practicing ministry once again. It's what I live for, it's what I search for and no matter where I go this has been the one place I've actually have found it. I've considered transferring to Houston Baptist so I could be fully emersed in this community. But God has not released me to do those things yet. For some reason apart from my own, UMHB is where I am supposed to struggle, fail, grown and learn at the moment. I rejoice for God's plan for me is perfect in all ways.
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