By Not Known
The first thing I learnt about prayer many years ago was that God does not depend on me to pray. Yet he wants me to keep the lines of communication with him open faithfully and consistently. I used to think that prayers are what I bring to God and depend solely on my initiative. Prayer is not my initiative. It is God’s. What is needed is my humility, a contrite heart, a willing spirit and a submissive attitude. Everything is dependent on God, not us.
Next, so often I was overwhelmed by the fact that there are so much hindrances to praying: anxieties, unrepented sins, hidden agendas, undesirable habits, etc. These things blocked my access to God. Then I realised that I needed to get on my knees to sort these blockages out and handed them over to God one by one. Then I was freed.
I also discovered that my prayers were usually centred on my own needs rather than God’s desires for me. I made plenty of requests, prayed for many things, but seldom really prayed sincerely from God’s perspective. Most of all, it was not God who is the centre of my prayers but myself who dominated the prayers.
As I grew as a Christian, I learned one more lesson: it was easy to pray by myself but extremely difficult to pray with others. When I pray with others, my focus would be on how well I form the phrases of prayer rather than talking with God spontaneously and simply. I felt good when others say, “I like your prayers.” What they meant was they like to hear the words I say in the prayer. I had since learned to dispel that wrong understanding.
Praying is one of the most difficult spiritual disciplines in the Christian life. Yet, praying is very much a part of our worship. Praying with others regularly is also the single most frustrating thing in the life of a church too. How do churches have sustained growth if we as members of the body find it difficult to talk with God together just like we worship God together on Sundays?
As we seek MVPs in prayers, we are also asking you to go On your Knees to seek God in pray. Prayers are only the vehicles, God is our destination. I believe that when we unite our hearts and minds together to seek after God, we can experience breakthroughs from heaven in our ministries here at ORPC.
Are you OyK?
Peter Poon