prayer

hey guys... may and i just came back from the prayer room about an hour ago

for those of you who don't know what the prayer room is... sara tellio came up with the idea to start a 24/7 prayer in which as you can probably guess, a prayer that lasts for 24 hours, 7 days a week (168 hours). so we have a prayer room at the baptist college of ministry across the road from upper UH. with the help of other organizations and churches, our mission is to have non-stop prayer for one whole week. mostly the prayers are directed to reaching the lost, especially on campus. God loves everyone in this world and so should we.

so may and i had the 8-9p shift tonight and we got there around 755 and we met this guy named jarret who had the 7-8 shift. during our shift i just played slow, soothing music on a guitar that helped me remind myself about God. may colored in a journal, read books, and did some other things. we prayed a couple of 5 minute prayers also. before we knew it, our hour was over. but i wanted to stay there longer so we did and just when the clock hit 9p, dean came in. he's this super cool guy from campus crusade who knows how to play a lot of instruments and also teaches. 

dean came in with something weighing on his mind. he felt like he hasn't been praying as much as he should have. he says he came into the room intending to pray for the whole hour because it's been a long time since he had done that. and you know what, it's true for me also. i can't remember the last time i actually sat in a quiet place and prayed. you know what i mean? it's been a while since i sat in a quiet place, with nothing around me to distract me like music or TV or games, and just talk to God. i felt so ashamed of myself when dean said that because i knew in my heart that it was true for me too. here i am telling everyone to pray multiple times daily and i myself don't do it. i love the way dean put it by saying, "prayer became a religion". i think he meant that prayer became something he had to do instead of something he truly loved doing. and that was true in my life also. do you love praying? or do you pray because you have to? God tells us to pray and so we do. we talk about sincere prayers and how God only hears sincere prayers. well i realized that sincere prayers only come from people who love praying, who love talking to God. we shouldn't pray just to pray. instead we should pray because we love doing it. 

anyway, because of his words may and i felt like praying for dean and so i started off and took about 2 minutes, may took about 1 minute, but dean took about a half hour. now to some of you that might seem long, but being there made it seem short. a lot of us pray with a sense of formality in our prayers. meaning that a lot of our prayers sound the same. we open with a greeting to God and then pray for requests, then we thank God, and then end it. we pray to God like how we would talk to our boss or teacher or some other authority figure. understand that i'm not saying that it's bad. but what i've learned since joining campus crusade is that talking with God can be informal in a sense and yet still be sincere. for example, have you ever addressed God as "Daddy"? or how bout laugh or chuckle in the middle of a prayer because of your admiration and because your so in awe with the power and supremacy of God. in my opinion, the prayer seemed more sincere because it was as if dean was talking to his biological dad when we was just a little kid. and that's what God wants us to do right? to come to him as a child, believing and trusting that He'll always provide anything and can do anything. also there shouldn't be a specific structure in prayer between the beginning and end. meaning that when you greet God, you're free to say anything you want. you can switch subjects randomly, stay on one subject, laugh with God if you feel like it, and stuff like that. anything that will make the prayer more sincere helps. finally, you don't need to close your eyes during prayer. if you recall from the bible, Jesus looked up when He prayed to the Father. we just close our eyes to prevent distraction. up to you. as long as it's from your heart. oh yah... don't forget the "Amen".

i'm gonna try pray prayers that are more sincere to God. what's the use of praying if you're not sincere about it? it's just a waste of time. much like my life. if i don't spend my life serving God to the best of my ability, then what good is it? a life must have a purpose, and God already provided the purpose in the context of His Word. i challenge anyone who's reading this to pray a sincere prayer to God. it can be long or short, as long as you know in your heart that it's truly sincere. remember the feeling afterwards, because that's a feeling you're going to wanna hold on to and experience over and over again.

thanks :p luv ya

psalm 18-23

*listening to Mark Lowry's "Home Where I Belong"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S801KPX-PgE&feature=related

a couple things stuck out to me in chapter 18. first of all, verse 2 says "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer". do you guys know what the word "deliver" means? you know like when you send a text message and then you go back into your sent folder there it tells you when your text was sent AND when it was delivered. and sometimes your text is delivered 5 minutes after it was sent. so how does this make sense? i was watching this message on TV a while ago and the pastor was talking about this very question. when you go to the post office, you SEND a letter or package to a destination. you don't DELIVER it because that's the mail person's job. so what David is saying in this passage is that the Lord not only sends you out of evil or danger, he delivers you out of evil. in other words, he makes sure that you get out of evil. here's another example, when you go to heaven, God will not only send you there, he'll be there right by your side as you go. it's like he's in shotgun when you're driving. he won't just say good-bye and watch you drive off to wherever. he'll be with you each step of the way. so God is your ultimate mailman. God is your deliverer.

in verse 30, it says "the word of the Lord is perfect". i remember getting a few 100% grades on essays in high school. most of them were only a page or two long but when i look back on them now, i can notice some flaws in them like slight misspellings, grammar issues, and other things. so in a way my paper wasn't perfect. now look at the bible. my study bible is 1991 pages long. to say that my bible is perfect kinda sounds impossible to some people. theologists and scientists have tried and are still trying to prove the bible wrong. and i would be convinced that the bible is imperfect but there's one fact that keeps me faithful, John 1 says "the Word was God". it's true, the bible is the living, breathing Word of God, and that makes it perfect. and because God is perfect, that makes all those stories of jonah and the big fish, the great flood, the parting of the red sea, and all the miracles true. that's it, what else is there to say. so if someone asks you, "How can you believe all that ridiculous stuff in the Bible?" just tell them, "'cause I believe in God and His perfection".

on to chapter 19. i love verse 3 because it says, "There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." isn't it amazing that no matter what language you use to praise and glorify God, He can understand you. so God really does hear and love all the children of the world. 

verses 7-11 is just more proof that God is perfect. read through these verses more than once and try to fathom God's perfection if you can. we all know that no one is perfect and that Jesus was. try to imagine what perfect looks like. what does the lifestyle of a perfect man look like? what do they do all day? think about it... what would Jesus do? once you start getting an idea of how to live a perfect life, apply it to yours. can you handle it? remember, your life is for God, the perfect One. handle it.

verses 7 and 8 of chapter 20 go like this, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm." when you go walking through your school, you see a lot of people who use violence to solve answers. they think that their punches and power can defend them from anything. if someone wants to fight them, they use violence, not words. they depend on their strength so much that when they realize that their strength is gone, they have nothing. when you trust in the Lord, you have a source that will never run out. what does that mean to you? to have God on your side means to have infinite power, knowledge, love, grace, and everything else on your side. your own power can't help you when you face Satan. only trust in God can drive away the devil.

chapter 22 verse 23 says to "revere Him". the word "revere" means to have admiration or deep respect. so when you think about God's power and love for us, how can you not respect and admire Him? we respect our elders, teachers, friends, and others, but sometimes we don't respect God. if you really do love God, you respect Him. 

i really don't need to say anything about psalm 23. i can talk for hours about psalm 23. if you haven't read this chapter before, you need to now. but not only read it, meditate on it. what does it mean to "lie down in green pastures" or "You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies"? psalm 23 is my life-chapter. it's words so little but meaning so profound and important in our Christian lives.

thanks for reading guys :D luv ya