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(04/07/2003) The essence of prayer


Hello prayer warriors, 1. Prayer note: The essence of prayer [1 Thessalonians 5:17] Pray without ceasing. In a recent message, my pastor recently covered how God can restore us in spite of our blunders. One of the topics included restoration by the joy of His presence. What is the joy of His presence and how does this relate to our topic for today? Many of us have forgotten that prayer means enjoying His presence. The essence of prayer is not some ritual which we perform 15 minutes or half an hour a day. It is not the two hours we spend groaning or crying to God. It is not the pages of petition that we bring before God for Him to perform on our behalf. Many times we look at the form and forego the substance. We observe all the form of bringing our list of prayer requests to Him and of ending the prayer right in the Name of Jesus but forget that the most important equation in prayer is not the formula but His presence. When we do that, we have effectively missed out on the essence of prayer. We have prayed without praying :) What is the first thing that we need to do when we come to God in prayer? Realise WHO we are spending time with. Realise that this is the same God who said He will be faithful to us, who loves us perfectly even though He is also the person who can see us at our worst. He knows everything about us and yet in spite of that, He loves us so passionately that He was willing to strip Himself of everything that He had to come down and die for our sins. He does not demand that we fulfill all the right things and be perfect before we come to Him. We are already perfect because He sees us through Christ’s sacrifice. He fulfilled it all. IT IS FINISHED! Because of that we can come to Him freely in the car, in the bathroom, in your seat right now and enjoy His presence. We can be in prayer always because we can be conscious of His presence and be enjoying and communicating with Him all the time or any time. It is just like a relationship with someone who loves you, like your spouse. You are not going to be all tensed up thinking of all the things you shouldn’t have done, didn’t do or should have done before you spend time with your spouse. You just spend time and enjoy each other’s company and be comfortable in each other’s presence. So, WHO is this God whom we are spending time with? He is someone who loves us and accepts us and we can be with Him all the time. When we learn to be conscious of His presence and learn to enjoy Him, we can be praying without ceasing. All we need to do is observe the substance, not the form! 2. Votes decreasing The average votes have been decreasing. Continue to vote for the site to bring in more visitors. To view and vote for the site, click here: http://mydevotion.com/mailvote.asp 3. Prayer requests: i. Building faith -- guest http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2255 ii. my friend - yceleb http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2256 iii. my brother - yceleb http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2259 iv. Death of Uncle/Godfather due to suicide -- dwicks http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2262 v. I need prayer: Porn addiction -- rlc477 http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2264 vi. Healing, finances & deeper walk w/ God -- yolara http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2269 vii. I need a job -- jennyz http://mydevotion.com/p.asp?tid=2285 4. Number of prayer warriors: 1848 We welcome every new member who has joined us since the last email. There were so many that I decided not to list all their nicknames down in this email. Continue to pray for prayer request on the site and please pray for me that I will continue and persevere in this ministry. I need your prayers. Your sister in Christ, Wai Hun
Wednesday, April 23, 2003 4:43:12 AM waihun

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