Prayer

Jessica and Ryan Moore have been pastoring Causeyville Baptist Church for nearly 4 months now, and tonight I had the chance to visit. My aunt and uncle from California (soon to be Mississippians again) went also, and the three of us rode together. The church was small but filled with nice, sweet people. The building was really pretty inside as well.

When it came time to preach, Ryan stepped up to the plate (with new, SWEET black with turquoise paisley printed tie!) and made us open to Matthew 6:5-15... the Lord's Prayer. To be honest with you, the first thoughts that went through my head were "another Lord's Prayer sermon. I've heard so many of these in my 22 years." But as Ryan read through the scripture and picked out pieces of interest, it started speaking to my heart.

For one, the Lord's Prayer begins with "Hallowed be Your name" (verse 9)... it begins with worship, as it should! It just blows my mind -I'm talking Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic explosion- that the God of the universe, the God that took absolutely nothing and created EVERYTHING so intricately also takes time to hear each and every one of our prayers. And regardless of the fact that He already knows what is on our heart, He still listens intently and feels our pain, our sorrows, our fears, our joys and hopes. He deserves our praise!

Next, He wants us to forgive others just as He forgives us (v. 14-15). This is sometimes easier said than done. But as Ryan stated, it just seems so stupid that we hold on the hurt/pain that others have caused us. We linger over things that hurt us and continue to let them rule portions of our life... when we can give it to God and forgive the person, just as Jesus did.

The from Luke 1-13, Ryan made note that the guy did not lend his friend food so late at night because the guy was his friend. It was because the guy was so persistant. And the same we, we should be persistant with our prayers. There should not be a limit of time that put our hands on our hips and say, "Ok, God. You just don't care about this so I'm done praying about it." No! We must continue to pray. Ryan told a story of one guy's ministry, and how this guy prayed for the conversion of 5 people. It took 18 months for one to accept Christ as his/her savior. There was a 5 year time span before the second person accepted Christ into their life, six years before the third was converted. And the guy was STILL praying every single day for 36 years later for the other two! Amazing! God does answer prayers, so do not give up. Ryan also point out 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "pray without ceasing."

And the more I listened, the more excited I got. I have not been exercising my prayer life very well recently... I'll admit it. And there is just SO many things that I need to be on my knees about. And not only do I need to get my lips flapping to God, but I need to start sitting down/shutting up/listening to God speak.

There's a song by Switchfoot that I love to blare in the car and yell the lyrics at the top of my lungs while having my face reflect the emotion of the words. The bridge of the song goes like this:

"What direction? ...... What direction?? ...... What direction?! Life begins at
the intersection! What direction? What direction? What direction now?

There's boatload of times that I want to yell these words outload in real life. I mean, I only have a semester left in college. Then what? Grad school? No grad school? Work and then grad school? Work? What branch of work? Work where? Stay in Mobile? Go back home? Go else where? Relationship status? Family's advice... friend's advice... advisor's advice... etc. Just so many questions and scenarios can be conjured up!

But yet favorite song of mine (by Sanctus Real) pops into my head:

"Got a funny feeling that I'm gonna go away. Gonna face my future; gonna
try to make the grade. Got a ways to go from here, and... vision doesn't seem to
clear, BUT praise! God has got a plan. Understanding isn't my place!"

You know, I look at my aunt and uncle and their recent step of faith. After pastoring Ojai Valley Baptist Church for 19 years, they are being led to come back to Mississippi to begin a new ministry: Unchanging Truth Ministries International, a ministry to train pastors from 3rd world countries (currently Uganda, but soon branching out to Kenya, India, etc) who have NO knowledge of basic theology. All they know is that God wants them to be in Mississippi. They do not know where they will be staying, where their income will be coming from, what they will be doing... but yet, they go anyway knowing that God will supply their every single need. Wow...

So the lesson learned from tonight, go to God in prayer! Be persistent with your requests. Convey your thoughts, but definitely take time to listen for God's voice and guidance. I am so excited! I know that I will not get all of the answers that I am hoping for right away, but I do know that G0d will put me right where He wants me to be if I will shut up, listen, and then go do whatever He is wanting of me. And so it begins. This is not going to be easy for me, with classes/studying aka the-hectic-life about to begin again. But I pray that God will give me the strength and the dedication to set aside time everyday to spend with Him.

Thanks, Ryan, for an awesome lesson. Sorry I doubted your topic choice. I was wrong. Please forgive.
P.S. - I forgive you for all those times you yelled "shut up" to me on the phone while I was conversating with my sister.