April 22, 2009

Today, instead of doing it over a certain passage of the Bible, I just wanted to discuss a certain topic. PRAYER!!!

Reading the Bible is very important, but at the same time, praying is also equally important. Prayer is a time where we can really communicate with God. Although God knows everything, it's a time to really thank God, to ask for forgiveness and a change of heart, and to ask Him for the things we really need/seek. Of course we have short prayers before meals or before bed time or etc., but that's not what I want to focus on. I want to focus on a prayer-driven life.

A time of day where we put aside for just simply prayer. It's hard, but once we make a habit out of it, we won't be able to go about our days w/out doing it. That's how it should be. It should be so that we find a quiet place, alone, sit down and start praying, not knowing how much time has passed. For example: We can start out by praying about the broad topics: world, people we don't know, missionaries, and etc., anything outside the box, then move on to something a little more personal, for example: US, then home state, then Indiana, then campus, then college, then church...then move on to more personal topics: family, friends, brothers n sisters, then finally move on to praying about self. Then after that intimate time of prayer, we can sit there and reflect on our prayer topics, and really try to just listen! Meanwhile we could put some nice, calm music on also, so that it's not awkward. Of course this is just an example, not everyone goes about doing this, but it's one way to start!

Last Sunday, when I went back home, our youth jundosanim gave a sermon about prayer. That was his example of how he prays. He said that it was always hard for him to pray more than 10 minutes w/out thinking about how much time had passed. Then one day, he decided to make a prayer topic list and he did exactly what I said previously...after all that, when he looked at the time, it was already 2+ hours passed. He said that he felt amazing after all that prayer because he was so into it. Before I went into service, I was so tired, and didn't really care about anything that was going on...honestly I didn't really intend on paying so much attention to the sermon, especially because most of the time it's intended for way younger kids, but anyways...after he started talking about prayer, I started to listen and towards the end of it, I honestly felt guilty. I do my quiet times and blogs, but aside from short prayer there and prayer before meals, I rarely sit down and really pray for a longer period of time. After the sermon, I really felt convicted to make that time out of my day to do so.

I just wanted to share how important that was to me, and that I feel it should be as important to anyone else. Our jundosanim went over 2 topics: Prayer is not a "magic spell," and prayer is not a "spare tire." Prayer is not a "magic spell," means that just because we ask for things, doesn't mean that we get everything we want. Prayer is not a "spare tire," means that we shouldn't just go to prayer when in need of something, but we should constantly pray...as a matter of fact, prayer (God) should be our "steering wheel."

Lately there have been a lot of prayer requests and stuff so... That's all I wanted to share =)