Just Pray

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Praying is one of the most difficult struggles for Christians today.

Reading the Bible can be tedious, but when we see the Bible sitting on the table, it reminds us that we need to read. Sin is a huge challenge, but we KNOW that we are not to participate in it, so we fight to stay away from sin.

It’s different with prayer. There is no physical reminder to call us to pray, and forgetting to make time for prayer is a very easy.

Even still, the biggest issue we have with prayer is that we do not know how to do it. Jesus taught us one prayer, but sometimes that prayer can seem rehearsed and ineffective. Other times, we have specific needs and thanks to offer God, but we are unsure how to do it. Worse still, there are times we feel as though God is not answering our prayers – either He is not listening or He feels distant and unconcerned. Our prayers go unanswered and we feel as though God never heard them in the first place. Prayer is hard!

But it does not have to be.

God wants us to call out to Him, and He does not care how we do it. He just wants to hear from us. Your prayers do not need to be eloquent pieces of work; they just need to be heartfelt. Your prayers do not need to cry out for the salvation of all souls; they just need to be an honest presentation of your heart to God. He is waiting to hear your voice today, and when He does, He will rejoice that you contacted Him in the first place (Ps. 141:2, Matt 6:7).

Even if you do not know WHAT to pray, God still wants to hear from you. Just open your heart and start talking. If you can think of nothing else to say but Jesus’ name, then cry, “Jesus!” with all you can muster, and trust God. The sweetest prayer comes not from the best words or asks for the nicest things, but from the heart that earnestly seeks to touch God.

Do not believe the lies any longer. God is waiting on the edge of His seat to hear from you. He longs to hear your voice. He looks forward to when you contact Him, you just have to start talking.

Remember: God HEARS every prayer and rejoices, He just does not answer all of them the way we want. So start now. Have a discussion with the Lord of Creation and see what He has to say to you.

Just pray.

Read it yourself: 2 Chronicles 7:14, Romans 8:26, Psalm 141:2, Matthew 6:7

Trusted by God

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Serving God is hard.

Whether you pastor a small country church, lead a mega-church, travel for missions, play worship, or simply tell a friend about God, serving God is never easy. It might bring joy, but it always costs.

Often, the cost can dampen even the brightest fire for God. When someone complains about the message that was given or the way a song was sang, feelings get hurt. Low attendance can humble the greatest confidence, and rejection can make it easy for someone to stop sharing the Gospel. Even in the greatest ministries, one failure can be enough to make people lose hope.

We know what we are supposed to do when we get discouraged. Call on God! Put your trust in Him! Believe that He has a plan for you! These are all great things to do, and anyone in a situation of despair should do them – but they do not bring encouragement. Waiting for God to answer one’s call tries the patience. Believing that God has a plan for you grants a future hope, but does nothing to assuage the present anxiety. We are not worthy or able to complete the task, so we must wait nervously and impatiently for God to come and lift us up.

But God sees things differently.

You ARE able and worthy to fulfill the duties that God has given you. You are in the position that you are in now because for a reason. God did not elevate you to a position of leadership so that He could embarrass or discourage you – He placed you there so that you could excel and bring Him glory! God gave you this opportunity because no one else could do it like you can. He has made you with a purpose, and He has entrusted you with the reputation of His Church. God’s hope for the Church is in you. He considers you trustworthy.

So, next time you begin to feel worthless or lost in your service to God, remember:
God believes in you.

He has placed you according to your abilities.
He considers you worthy of His name.
God trusts you.

Read it yourself: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Why Me?

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Back in January, I was at a retreat for my Seminary education, and I was in the valley. I had realized that my relationship with God, despite being six years in the making, had become superficial and stale. I had gone through the motion of being a Christian, including prayer, preaching, and learning about God, all without building up my relationship with Him. I felt hopeless and lost. For years I had thought that I was growing towards God, and suddenly I realized that I had missed the point all along. I was at a rock-bottom place spiritually.

So I did the only thing that I could think of to do. I prayed to God. I asked Him to show me where I had gone wrong, where I needed to be, and how I could get there. I asked Him for a sign that He had not abandoned me in my superficial faith. And then I waited.

For two days I waited without a single notice from God. I was desperate, and was looking for any kind of indication that God was still hearing me. I knew that I was loved by God – the Bible had told me so, and I had read about it countless times, but that was not enough anymore. God HAD to love me – after all, He was God. But why me? Why had God decided that I personally was valuable enough to send His Son to die? What about me had attracted God to me before I was ever created?

I had to know, so I asked. I asked God to tell me why He had been drawn to me. I knew why I had been drawn to God – Revelation and fear of judgment had evolved, at one point, into a love for my Creator. But I did not know what made me special to God. So again I waited.

Finally, I received my answer. God told me why He loved ME. Thus began my slow climb back out of the valley.

Have you ever asked God why He loves you in particular? Do you know what it is about you that makes you so special to God that He was willing to send His son? There is something, and God wants to tell you what it is. He loves you dearly – enough to come and die for you. Because He loves you, He is not going to stay silent forever. Just ask.

“Why me?”

He is just waiting for you to ask.

God Cheated

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God and Satan have been playing a game against each other for a very long time. The game has been close, and every time one has tried to get ahead, the other has managed to frustrate the plan. Suddenly, Satan thinks he finally has what it takes to win. The last pieces of his game plan fall into place, and God plays right into his hands.

Satan has won the game

But God does not concede defeat. Instead, He declares that, in fact, Satan has NOT won, because it’s GOD’S game. God insists that because it is His game, all will play by His rules.

He. Wins.

If something like this happened to one of us, we would instantly accuse the other person of cheating. We would feel lied to, manipulated, and cheated. An argument would most certainly erupt.

And yet this exact scenario played out millennia ago when God sent His Son for our sins. God had made numerous promises to the Israelites, and Satan had tried relentlessly to ruin each one.

Abraham would become a great nation – but the Hebrew people were enslaved in Egypt.
Saul would be a king for God – but jealousy turned him into a tyrant.
Israel would be God’s chosen nation – but Assyria, Babylon, and Rome conquered them.

Then Jesus came.

This was Satan’s golden opportunity. He knew the Scriptures – if He could cause Jesus to sin or snuff out His mission, God would fail. e would successfully have corrupted The Almighty. None of his past failures to ruin God would matter, because if he could conquer Jesus, He would conquer God.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Satan put so much effort into killing Jesus.

He turned the Romans against Him.
He turned the Jews against Him.
He even turned one of His closest friends against Him.

Jesus was tortured, and Jesus died. Hell rejoiced. Satan had conquered God.

Imagine Satan’s surprise when three days later Heaven was rejoicing. In the ultimate show of His power and majesty, God raised Christ from the dead for the salvation of all humanity. In this one act, God both showed His infinite love for us while also showing to Satan and the entire world that no matter what, the plans of God will always prevail.

Satan probably walked away that day thinking one thing:
God cheated.

The world around us might seem like it is against us. We can’t seem to save money. Our relationships fall apart. Life just gets in the way. Yet God has a plan for each of us, and He wants nothing more than to fulfill that plan for us. He is strong enough to do it, and He is more than willing to do it. He broke the rules of a cosmic game for us once. He’s not going to let you fall apart.