Prayer

I don't understand all the intricacies about prayer, but I have found out  that prayer works. I am no expert at prayer, but I have found that prayer works. I have experienced events in my life and in the lives of others that I believe were the result of prayer.

Oftentimes when we are in a bind we do just about everything to fix the situation except pray. We worry, manipulate and get angry yet don't pray. I know I have.

Sometimes we throw up a half hearted prayer. We sometimes treat prayer like rubbing a rabbits foot or some other superstition.

Prayer really is about being in conversation with God. When we converse with others we speak, they speak back. We get signals from the other person as we are talking with them. I have found this to be true when it comes to prayer.

I have found that if you have a sincere heart, God will work with you in your prayer life. You don't have to know much, just be willing to be taught by God. He will begin to guide your prayers. Sometimes we may not be getting an answer to prayer and God will speak to us about changing something in our life. That's the type of occasion where we get to see how badly we want that prayer answered.

I don't claim to know why some prayers get answered and some seem like they don't, but I know prayer works. I don't know why some prayers get answered quickly and others take a long time, but I know prayer works. I have prayed for people on the verge of death, some have lived, yet some have died. I don't understand why, but I know prayer works.

Finally, think of the people you deal with. They may get angry with you, but you can still pray for them. You may know someone going through a rough time and yet when you have tried to share with them about following Jesus wth their lives they become angry. Guess what? You can still pray for them.
You may have people who don't want to hear about Jesus, but you can still pray for them.

Never underestimate the power of prayer. I have seen it change people and situations. We can never spend enough time praying.

Troy

I Believe... Now What ? Pt. 2

Most of us can remember when we first started following Jesus with our lives. It was refreshing, exhilirating, and basically your life is turned upside down, or downside up. There is something amazing that happens to someone when they finally get the revelation that God loves them more than they can imagine. That wonderful feeling of being forgiven and cleansed from all past sins. You had heard people talk about it, but now you are actually experiencing it yourself. It is an amazing time. It's like you have just stepped into a new world that you had only heard about and doubted that it existed.

The part where I find many followers of Jesus struggling is with the "now what'? What I mean is that we are taught to go to church regularly, we are taught to pray, we are taught to read our Bibles. We are taught to let go of our old ways that brought harm to our lives. We are also taught to tell others about the life they can experience by following Jesus. We are also taught the wonderful truth that after we die we will go to heaven to live forever with Jesus.

The "now what" has to do with, what do I do when I'm not doing the things I was taught? I mean beyond all that was mentioned in the above paragraph. What about work, a career, family, relaxation, vacation, etc...  When I'm not doing the "religious" stuff what am I to do?

If I don't feel a "call " into ministry then what? Do my giftings, talent and knowledge matter? Am I just living, waiting to die and go to heaven?

This is how many feel after they get going in their "Christian walk".  One of the reasons I believe we can feel this way is because too much emphasis can be placed on getting someone to "believe". By that I mean intitial conversion. Somtimes we can emphasize that so much with the idea that once you "believe" you can now go to heaven that we don't help people with the "in between" time.

I have come to find that the "in between" time is for transformation. Some may call it discipleship. Some may call it becoming more Christ like. But if you don't have this,  your life will seem to be  just like a process of believe and then  wait to die and go to heaven.

The good news is that there is more than just believe and wait to die and go to heaven. In the next post I will look at ways the transformation process happens. What God does and what we do. But in reality it is all grace. All a gift of God. It appears we are doing something, but whatever we do is because of His grace in allowing us the ability to be able to do it.

Troy