“This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
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This is just a re-post. Got this from ALNP-Makati sister and just wanted to share with you. This is true with me, and maybe it is to you too… Hope this could help. God bless!
 Overcoming Prayerlessness
Pete Briscoe
Remember when you first started dating, how it all seemed like a foreign language to you? That girl or that guy you were talking to seemed to speak a completely different language. It was so hard to connect… it was so hard to start communicating the way you both wanted to.
Sometimes I think prayer is just like that… like a foreign language. Have you ever felt that way? I honestly have!
Reminds me of my first experience with foreign language, which was my Spanish class. I struggled learning that language because it was, well, “foreign”! I got to the point where I would just rather quit than fail at it. My teacher promised not to flunk me if I quit before the end of the semester!
Sometimes prayer feels so foreign to me. There are times – I’m speaking honestly here – that I feel like such a complete failure. So I just kind of push it to the side and I start working harder. I start doing stuff more and prayer gets neglected.
The problem is, in I Thessalonians 5:17, the apostle Paul commands us to “pray continually. ” God wants prayer to be a natural outflow of our lives as His children.
So how does prayer work? How can prayer be like our first language rather than a foreign language? I believe the answer is found in an understanding of why we don’t pray in the first place. Near the top of my list is that we are a bit puzzled by prayer. We don’t understand it.
We think, “If God is sovereign, why do I have to pray?” Or we pray for something for ten years, and that prayer goes unanswered. That confuses us… it befuddles us… and we get frustrated because we don’t understand it.
But the fact that you and I don’t fully comprehend prayer is no reason to neglect it. It’s no excuse not to pray. In James 5:16, we are told:
What do you have to do to have effective, powerful prayer? Do you have to be an expert in the theology of prayer? No. Do you have to be brilliant? No. You don’t even have to be smart… you only have to be a child of God. If you have trusted Jesus Christ, you are a child of God, and as a result, you have all it takes to have powerful and effective prayer.
That’s good news, my friend! That’s really good news!!
I spent a summer in Hong Kong and used to ride on the underground trains with all these wonderful Chinese folks. Every once in a while, I would hear them talking about me because I would hear “guilo.” “Guilo” means foreign devil!
So I asked my friend how I could present the idea that I understood what they were saying. He told me to say, “Da say nay.”
A few days later, I was coming back on the train, and there were two teenage boys on the train who I knew were talking about me. So I looked at them and said, “Da say nay!” Their eyes got big as saucers, and when the doors opened, they just ran!
I thought to myself, “Wow, I wonder what I said?” So when I got home, I asked my friend what I said, and he told me that “da say nay” means, “I’m going to kill you!” YIKES!
Now, the fact that I didn’t know what “da say nay” meant had nothing to do with its effectiveness. It was effective! My ignorance was insignificant. And the fact that you don’t fully comprehend PRAYER has nothing to do with its effectiveness.
There are other reasons that we don’t pray: we don’t make time, we don’t think we need it, and we can’t muster up the desire or the discipline. Of course, like when we try to do anything in our human power alone, we fail utterly. We need to recognize our need for the Holy Spirit to infuse us with a new passion, a new commitment to spend time talking to God. He wants us to… He’s waiting for us. What are we waiting for?
Original publication date: October 14, 2009
Bat ganun, matumal ang assignments ko…? So sad, especially now that I am badly needing them. I’m so bored staying home doing nothing aside from eating and sleeping the whole day. Di ako makapag-focus sa pag-aral because I’m not feeling well. I have flu and dry cough. Pwede na sana pampalipas oras ang paggawa ng blogs kaso lang wala pa rin akong narereceive na assignments until now. Nasan ka na?!?! Kailanga kita sa mga panahong to… I’m thinking of buying a jacket for my boyfriend and I’ve seen a nice one in coogi online shop. Hmmm…let me see the prices, hehehe… There are nice and trendy rubber shoes too! Oh, the shopaholic me!!! I have to remind myself to minimize spending. Stick to the budget and forget buying things that are not considered as NEEDS for the meantime. It will just only be for the next few months anyway. I’m back! Yeah, I’m back from my South East Asian tour and I’m perfectly back to my “katakawan” hehehe! I eat like six times a day?!?! And back to my chocolate cravings too. Do I need some sort of best fat burner thing? Nah! Not me, but some of my friends do! Hahaha…They are starting to blame me for the extra calories that they need to burn everytime I ask them to join me for merienda, another merienda and “quasi dinner” which is technically just another merieda, hahaha! I just love eating…gaining weigh is my goal! I’m still wondering why some people act as if they were uneducated ones. One common example is at the mall. There are entrance and exit signs, right? I’m sure you know what I’m pointing out here. I don’t know if some are just born that way or “trip trip lang”? I would understand if sometimes you tend to forget, like it was an honest mistake. Sometimes, I got irritated when I see people trying to enter in the door with and “EXIT” sign and sometimes I just smile. It’s just a simple thing and yet a lot of people fail to follow. That I guess demonstrate a lack of self-discipline. Have you heard of hgh? I was on my way to the office this morning when I heard it from the two ladies in front of me. Just curious what’s meant by that. Is it some sort of medicine, supplement or something that has to do with diet? Just not quite sure what’s really meant by that. But it looks like it’s about getting fit or something to that effect. The two ladies look like sales representatives too, so most probably I’m right. Hehehe…but of course I can do some research and find out. Talking about insurance? Actually, there are lots of insurance policy to choose from depending on your needs. There’s ssdi, life, health, death, disability and others. If you only have lots of excess money, you could insure everything hehehe… It’s actually a security for the beneficiaries, for their future if you’re talking of children as beneficiaries. Their future is really of the main concern there. But of course if you don’t have budget for that as of yet, just like me…the best thing that we can do is to pray and entrust our life and future to the One up there. I’m sure he’s always there to help us especially in times of need. My friends just visited the ongoing construction of their respective houses this morning. They checked together with the engineer if the electrical and water facilities are functioning well. They mentioned that the toilet is nice and the developer used saniflo toilet. I guess it’s a good quality. I’m happy that they finally got their own house and lot and they can probably move in to their new house next year. I hope I could get one too, soon! So, I really really have to focus on my studies…pursue with my plans and let God guide me in accomplishing those plans. I heard a lot of stories about the side effects of diet pills but I also know hear good stories about them. I guess it really depends on the product that you use, how you use it, your physical condition, diet and exercise. Of course you determination to be fit really matters a lot. It’s not easy to lose weight, I knew it as it’s also very hard for me to gain weight. It’s just a matter of time and discipline and you’ll attain the body and weight that you’ve been dreaming of. |
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