Writing your story with God

When I started to write this post, I really struggled to write the first sentence. I thought about it, wrote a sentence, then deleted the whole thing again. I went through about five ideas before the mental trash can of ideas had begun to overflow and fresh ideas stopped coming to mind. So I went to the Lord in prayer, "Lord, I am not trying to say something complicated. I just need a good first sentence, then everything will flow perfectly afterwards. Please, let's write it together." Then I realized I received the direction for this post.

Pre-dawn prayer

Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Don't be scared by the title of this section. It does not bite, and you're likely not allergic to it, so there's no need to worry. Let's just talk about this in a calm and orderly fashion before you close the browser window in pure shock. I promise you, it's going to be just fine.

If you stay, I will give you lots of candy.

If there is any one thing that my head Pastor taught me that has transformed me as a person as I walk my life of faith -- it's praying before the sun rises. I cannot go a single day without wanting to get up early in the morning, kneeling before God, and trying to connect with him. Yes, it can be difficult at first, but the rewards are worth much more than the handful of failures. When I offer a prayer in which I really connect with God, I find that connecting with Him the rest of the day becomes as easy as sending a text message to your best friend. And naturally, after having a day like that, I want to get up the next day only wanting more.

When I first tryed pre-dawn prayer I got up at 4:50 A.M. all groggy-eyed and rolled off my bed. Luckily I landed on my knees so at least I did not have to get into kneeling position. I folded my hands and closed my eyes and I just started speaking about various things and giving thanks to God for anything that really came to mind. When I could not think of anything else to be thankful for I ended with the classic "in your name I pray, amen" and ended my prayer. I looked at the clock and noticed ten minutes had passed so I went back to bed. 

No. Getting back into bed was not all that graceful either.

When I woke up later, I had actually woken up before my alarm went off. It was not the I-just-arose-from-slumber-after-1000-years kind of being awake either. I was freshly awake, so I turned off my alarm, got ready, and went to school. When I went to class that day I remember that my mind was more in tune with God in the sense that while I listened to the lecture, I realized things about the message that I heard recently, the Bible verses I read that morning, and about prayer in general. It was like He was next to me helping me understand the class material deeper through the word. 

Since trying it the first time, there have been failures of course. But failure only made me want to try even harder. When I tried like this every day, it not only deepened my faith, but my character had begun to change. I became more thankful, more lighthearted, more resilient to hardship, and less worried about my life.This, I realized, is one of the ways God blesses you. It is when you have the heart of putting in the effort to seek Him every day, that you find that he has blessed you in the process.

It's possible at this point you're still wondering, "But is it really necessary it be that early? Doesn't God hear you no matter what time of day?" It's true, God does not really take lunch breaks from hearing prayers. But in the case of prayer, the one that has to be prepared is you. When I pray during the day, my mind is full of the various things that I have to do that day, so even if I want to focus it will take some time. But, when I pray early like this, my mind is crystal clear and the environment is ideal for prayer. It really feels like you are alone with God.

Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

There are actually several other reasons why pre-dawn prayer is so good based in both science and the Bible, but what's better than reasons that people give you are the reasons that you end up making for yourself. And that's what I realized during prayer. Praying in the pre-dawn is like writing the perfect first sentence that lays the foundation for a solid piece of writing. That piece of writing is the writing of every moment, the writing of every day, and the writing of your life. When you start everything by first praying to God, things will work out for you.

And, you'll have a great story to read later about you and God.

As for next post, I will continue to talk about prayer. But don't worry. I'll find a new way to talk about it so it will be fresh for everyone. Until then, enjoy praying!

It all starts with prayer

I decided to begin this blog out of an inspiration I received in prayer. When I prayed this morning I asked Jesus to give me something new to do that would be fun, challenging, and a means for me to get closer to him. As I prayed I discussed with the Lord, "Lord, I have a lot of talents but they do not seem very useful to you unless I am going to be lecturing mathematics or making programs. What should I do to get closer to you then?" Then I received inspiration that I should try to write about something. At first I reacted in a kind of playful and curious way saying, "Really? I am terrible at writing though. Surely you can use other people to write since I am not all that great at it." As I continued to pray about it I realized it was truly a good idea. A verse came to mind:

Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.

So I agreed and decided I would start here on blogger since I am not really sure where else to start and I love Google so much. Only in a it's-everything-in-one-place-so-why-not kind of way though. Prayer is the same in a sense in that it is the go-to solution for more or less anything in my life. When I'm hungry -- I pray. When I'm tired -- I pray. When I'm bored -- I pray. It's really so useful that it even puts duct tape to shame.

Yeah, prayer is more useful than that.

But my prayer was not always like this. I started out praying 20 minutes a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. My prayer was very mechanical and sometimes kind of awkward. It was never as bad as "rub-a-dub-dub thanks for the grub, yay God," but even thinking about how I used to pray still makes me giggle in embarrassment. Only after listening to my head Pastor and really trying to learn to pray given the advice he gave from the Bible was I ever able to pray in a way that I could not help but do it all the time. I'll just give you some of my favorite pieces of wisdom over a few blogs since they really are so deep.

Pray without ceasing

Putting the verse in the Bible here would be too ridiculous since it is literally the title of this section. Anyway, if there is one way to make prayer noneffective, it's to stop before it's finished. When you are running a race, do you stop just before the finish line?

I just ran 26 miles, I'm happy stopping here.

Prayer is the exact same way. If you pray while getting distracted by your cell phone constantly receiving text messages or you keep thinking about whether or not someone just commented on your post on Facebook every five minutes that is like stopping the race. Naturally, if you pray this way you'll have a really hard time receiving answers, solving problems, and connecting with God. Generally, I like to pray using a prayer mat in a quiet room with at least an hour of time to spare. When I pray like this, I have nothing to think about in the first place so all I can think about is reaching the goal.

This is not to say that I'm still without failure in this regard. I sometimes fail to pray with a focused mind so my prayer, which might have had good intentions, degenerates into basically sleep-talking. Let's just say that it's kind of embarrassing to tell God, "man I just want a pizza" in a half-awake state of mind. Or, I sometimes end up just falling asleep while kneeling only to wake up 30 minutes later with sore knees saying to myself, "Wow, that must have been a really focused prayer. Wait, what was I praying about?" Perfection takes continued practice, so failing is ok.

Also, for big things, you have to pray many times. You might have heard the adage, "Rome was not built in a day" before. They had to first conquer the entirety of the Italian peninsula, then unify all the tribes under one government, avoid a near-defeat by Hannibal, and then conquer the rest of the Mediterranean area. That took 700 years or so. When you ask God for something big, completely ridding yourself of a prideful nature, then you have to pray for it again and again until God gives it to you. More often then not, you'll actually notice once you receive it that God was gradually preparing you to receive it. If you give up, then all the prayer that you had done until that point will be useless.

You might be like me and think that it's difficult to keep doing something for an indefinite amount of time. To me, it can feel like chasing the light at the end of the tunnel and it just keeps getting farther and more faint. So instead of doing it for an indefinite amount of time, you can give yourself a set time to pray for it. For example, let's say you're looking for an answer for a specific direction in your life. You should pray until you receive the answer, but you can't wait 10 years. Instead, pray for 7 days, 21 days, or 40 days about the specific topic every day. That way, you're not just running on a treadmill. And, you might find that you receive the answer on the last day of your set time. You just have to look out for it.

Which brings me to my last bit about praying ceaselessly. If you want to receive an answer, you have to be ready for it.

Otherwise, the answer will hit you, bounce off, and you'll be left just being sore.

Prayer can be done at all times during the day. You can do it in school, at church, on a bus, doing laundry, studying for a test, and even taking a shower. There is really nothing magical about kneeling -- it just helps you focus properly during deep prayer. Prayer is thinking about the Bible, thanking God for things in your life, admitting your shortcomings,  and many other things. As long as your are trying to converse with God, it's prayer. When you live your life always trying to connect to God like this, it is like being ready to receive a pass in soccer, so you will be much more capable of receiving the answer.

I will be the first to admit that none of these are easy to do. But, if you really want to connect with God, it will be well worth the effort. If it's too much, then try starting somewhere small. If half an hour is too much prayer, then start with 10 minutes. If that's too long, then just pray one minute and just keep doing it every day. God will help you along as much as you want to be helped, so do it with thanksgiving and hope :). As for the next blog about prayer, I will be talking about times to pray. Hope to hear from you then!