Skip to main content

 

PRAYER

This is from my brother, Fr. Douglas Kimemia.
In this life we face big problems, stress, worries, and burdens, which always attempt to swallow or overtake us. In some cases, we feel like we are in a tight corner, walled or between a rock and a hard place. We feel overwhelmed and uncertain of the next minute or tomorrow. Simply, we don’t know what to do or where to turn to. In such a situation, Jesus is telling us to ask for His help for He is standing by.
Jesus talking to His disciples reminds them that those who ask for help will receive it, those who seek Him will find Him and those who knock the door it shall be opened for them. Help is only a knock away or a word away.
For anyone skeptical of power of prayers, I want to remind us that God is still answering prayers. I know with everything happening in us and around us, it may seem like God is offline or asleep. But the truth is that God is waiting on us to call on Him. Prayer still remains a powerful and secret tool, which is capable of winning all battles.
The issue today is that we are not asking at all unless everything else has failed. We treat prayer as a last resort. We are designing our ways to deal with life and conflicts in our best way, which has nothing to do with God’s will. And when we seek God, our motives are skewed, and our passion misdirected.
We are living in a generation that seeks God only when it is convenient but when it seems otherwise; we have nothing to do with God. We have accepted to settle for the status quo. If we settle with what we have already experienced, we cannot grow. We spend more time complaining about God than seeking Him in prayer. We spend time on arguing on what God is not doing instead of asking Him what to do for us. We complain of prayers not working when we are not praying in the first place.
Prayer is simply saying to God, "I recognize my weakness. I recognize that if anything significant is to happen, it will happen, because I’ve counted on You. You made it to happen." I don’t have it together and I need Your help. I submit all to Your authority. I am accepting Your authority in my life as I depend on You."
Prayer gives us the necessary resources to be fully transformed people. Through prayer we are molded into Christ-like, we are changed. We are provided with the tools needed to accomplish the mission. Through prayers impossible situations are changed to possible ones. Prayer works on our negative, doubting, critical, and pathetic sinful attitudes and behaviors. It transforms such harmful attitudes and behaviors into a rejoicing state. Through prayers we open a door for God to change us and uplift us.
When we pray, we receive benefits. Through prayer we are connected with heaven. God has made Himself available for us. When we knock the door and it is opened, we find Him behind it. He is waiting for us to knock it. David says that “O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory... Your love is better than life..." (Psalm 63:1-3). Amen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  PRAYER Jesus Christ NEVER taught on what we call "unanswered prayer." James wrote that a divided loyalty between trusting the Lord God for life and at the same time relying on the world's systems to get what you want will result in you not getting anything from God you may have prayed about. God will never reinforce the unbelief that flows from divided loyalty. THAT is not unanswered prayer. That is God saying, "No." to your request. God saying, "No." to your requests is not unanswered prayer. It is His grace. His "No" is just what I would want if I knew what He knows. The Lord also answers with, "Not now; not yet." because we are not yet prepared to receive what we think we need. God works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. If I am praying for something God wants to do in me and the Holy Spirit is working in me preparing me to receive what God has in store, His "Not yet." is NOT unanswered prayer. As we see...
Post a Comment
Read more
 HEBREWS 10:1-2, 10-18 "The sacrifices under that system ( the Old Covenant) were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.   If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.   For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.  Under the Old Covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.   But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.   There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under His feet.   For by that one offering He forever m...
Post a Comment
Read more
 James 1:5-8 " If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.   But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.   Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.   Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do." We must remember that God is never upset that we don't know or understand how to live out the New Life He has given to us. That Life is now being lived out in us by the Holy Spirit. This Life of the Kingdom is radically different that the life we are accustomed to living in concert with the world. One of the main marks of a true follower of Jesus Christ is that there is change and ongoing change in us by the Holy Spirit. We do not remain as we once were. The Holy Spirit is conforming us to the Image o...
Post a Comment
Read more