Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Prayer and Prayer and Prayer

Today, lets talk about prayer. To pray, according to the Oxford dictionary means to speak to God or a god in order to give thanks or to ask for something. Prayer is the most powerful thing in the world. With prayer, we can work wonders and miracles by the strength of God. In Christianity, prayer is the most important aspect. It can be said to be the backbone of the faith. This is basically because prayer is the only way we can speak our God Jesus Christ. It is like a telephone that is directly connected to Him and everytime we phone, it will be answered. No prayer will be left unheard. All prayers are heard, no matter by who. Anybody's prayer, be it young or old, male or female, pastor or not pastor, ANYBODY, their prayers will be heard. In the bible, even Jesus Christ our Lord needs to pray regularly, what makes us think that we do not need to pray? 2nd Chronicles 15:2 tells us that "If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you." Prayer is very important as it keeps us close to God. Prayer is sort of like an armour to protect us from doing evil. If we do not pray regularly, trust me, we will fall into doing evil. Matthew 26:41 says "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." Also, in 2nd Chronicles 12:14 "He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD."
As you can see, prayer is so so so important. If we pray, we will enjoy peacefulness from God. This is seen in 2nd Chronicles 14:7 "we sought him and he has given us rest on every side." In fact, in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, we can see that any king of Israel or Judah that seek the Lord enjoyed peace and victory, but any king that turned from God lose out in one way or another.
We as Christians pray for almost everything under the sun. Some people might think that we are kiasu, but that’s not the case. Thats because we believe that everything under the sun needs a prayer. When people are sick, we pray. When people are taking exams, we also pray. When people are going on a trip, we pray. When we eat, we pray too. Everything needs a prayer. For me, every and night when I wake up or sleep, I will pray. This is so that the day will be successful one.
Just last Monday, on 8/8/2005, my church had a prayer session to pray for the nation of Singapore. Prayer is extremely extremely important.
Sometimes our prayers are answered instantaneously, sometimes God decides to take it slowly. But do not lose patience! Continue praying and it will surely one day be answered! I know of someone whose parents are both unsaved. Every day she would pray for her parents. It is only after what seemed like 10 years before her prayers are answered and her parents came and know Jesus! Let me give you yet another example. The other time I had sports with my friend and we were waiting for a cab home. We were both in an area where the road is extremely busy and no cabs would stop for us. We prayed to God for a cab. Almost instantly, a cab pulled over by our side for a passenger to alight. We thanked God and boarded the cab.
You see, the power of prayer is immeasurable. If you have not started praying, you should start now.
James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."







































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