SDA Youth Moments: First Prayers

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Philippians 4:13

I was invited by my friend to speak at their academy vesper worship. I was a little hesitant but God’s call prevailed. So I agreed to speak and prayed to God that somehow my message would be an inspiration to those students most of whom were not Seventh-day Adventists.

However, I am not writing about how God strengthened me to speak to these young people. Instead, I was fully impressed to write about how some of the participants that night acted. They were very jittery and anxious to get their parts done and bolt away afterwards. One funny thing is that they reminded me of someone I know.

In our church, the Juniors Sabbath School Class (aged 10-12) had its own Divine Worship to prepare them for service at the main church.

One Sabbath, that person was chosen by his father, who served as their adviser and guide, to offer the pastoral prayer during the Divine Worship service. He was very apprehensive. First he was not a student at the Academy and was only there for the Sabbath. Second, he was not prepared in praying for a crowd and in a gathering such as these. But with his father’s insistence, he went on to serve even when cold sweat was already dripping down his back.

He collected his thoughts and tried to plan his prayer carefully. He even tried to ask if he could just read his prayer but his request was denied. So he had to go impromptu.

 At the pulpit, he was very anxious to get his part done and go back home. But the worst came, nothing came out of his mouth. He didn’t know what to say. He paused for so long while banging his knees on the floor. The thought of banging his head and throwing away the microphone also occurred to him.

He thought how foolish he looked especially with people his age. At the end of the service, he wanted to quickly get away from this crowd and go back home where no one would even know what he did.

But what happened during that embarrassing Sabbath led him to seek God’s help and try to remove his stage fright. It took several years but later on, he became very much involved in God’s work that he can’t even count how many times he had been on that pulpit. 

So imagine how much God would strengthen you whenever you feel inadequate and unprepared for His work. It just starts with as simple prayer – even a very embarrassing one.

I hope you’ve guessed who this person is, because I am not dropping names.

7:11 AND ONWARDS

Imagine a man walking inside this church. He looks haggard and worn. It even seems that he has not eaten for several days and his body is about to fall. But when you look at his clothes, he seemed like the man you see in the office. A CEO type.

He walks along the aisle. Slowly, very slowly. It was as if every step felt heavier. And when at last he reached the front pews, he suddenly kneels down and cries out in agony: “LORD, I BEG YOU HELP ME! MAKE ME RICH! SAVE MY BUSINESSES!”

In another side of the church, in the farthest corner, another person sits on the pews. This time a woman sat there. Her eyes closed, lips quivering in prayer. She started pouring out her heart to God as tears fell down her cheeks. In agony she prays for healing her sick son, her failing health, her depleting savings.

Now on one of the function rooms of the church, a group of young individuals gathered and started to pray for each other. They prayed for their families, their fellow brethren inside the church, for their ministry and for many other things.

So what do you think am I pointing out here?

You see, that man, that woman and the group of young individuals are all illustrations of some of us here in this church. Most of us are in agony or are in dire need of divine guidance and intervention. Some of us may even pray and praise God for whatever blessings we may have had. And when these things do happen, our bodies fall down on their knees and talk to our Creator. So we all pray.

For the past five months, I have learned how nerve racking this life could be. All of us may have already realized that, but with the current crises with the gas prices, the inflation rates, and our never changing income, it’s really devastating.

Warriors All

For the past years, we have learned to be more prayerful. We have learned to take a knee and pray fervently, faithfully. We have learned to become PRAYER WARRIORS!!

YES! Most of us have become more prayerful because of the crises. We have suddenly remembered what Jesus said:  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matt. 7:7, 8). And so everyone is down on their knees and starts praying. Now, we don’t only pray before we sleep, when we wake up or before we eat meals. We try to find time to pray almost every instant we can. AM I RIGHT?

So what does it mean to be a “prayer warrior”? I myself have been wondering the very same thing. I’ve prayed for protection from being too greedy or being misled by the enemy’s guile, but at the same time, I’ve prayed for that BMW, that brand new cell phone, and so many other things. Aside from not getting what I wanted, more questions on how prayer really works started to seep in.

An article posted in the Adventist Review Online website also poses the very same query. It even goes on to tell us that if what we mean by “prayer warrior” is someone who does battle using prayer, then who are we battling against? If our idea is to pray fervently enough to prevail, then doesn’t that lock us into a battle with God, Himself? Pretty weird isn’t it? But if that is our mindset, we seem to think that God would eventually wear down and give in to our request. It would seem to suggest that too much pestering would make God irritated and just say: “Alright quit talking, I’ve heard that 30 times this week! HERE, TAKE WHAT YOU WANT!” So in a sense that would make God some sort of a convenience store.

So what’s wrong with that picture, my dear brothers and sisters?  If we read the passage again, we see that the bottom line is asking God for help. It is true and I don’t plan to contest that at any moment now or in the future. And of course, we also know that it takes prayer and faith to get the things that we request.

We see so many illustrations of that in our Bibles. My favourite illustration is Elijah praying over the widow’s son and the boy came back to life and Elijah praying on Mount Carmel to send that fire from heaven. Daniel and the lion’s den also comes to mind when I think about praying faithfully and fervently.

But then, we also see that same prophet Elijah begging God to take his life, but God give him an angel instead. Our Saviour also prayed for the cup to pass from Him, but he died all the same.

Of course we may all argue that Jesus asked for God’s will to be done. But doesn’t that give us more questions than answers? How would we know the difference between God didn’t answer my prayer because it is not His will versus God didn’t answer my prayer because I didn’t pray fervently enough?

Sandwiched

If we look at the verse again carefully, this time in the similar message in Luke 11, we find a very interesting illustration. The verse is sandwiched by two illustrations.

First we see a man helping a friend at an ungodly hour. His friend’s persistence bade the man to give more than enough bread even though he and his family are already sleeping. Imagine our similarity to this picture, where in our persistence and in our faith in our God, he will still give us more than what we need.

The second one is similar to the first, it tells us about a son asking for his father for fish. Jesus asked the people if the father would give him a snake instead. And it ends with a comfortable thought: “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:11).

Isn’t that really comforting to know? Don’t you feel relieved by those words? I can see some nodding ( I just hope they’re not sleeping) and some are saying yes.

But now the question: Why do still things turn out badly even if we pray for it so hard and so faithfully?

Tell me if any of these has not yet happened to you: We pray for financial stability, and things still get wavy. We pray for help in an interview and we just goofed on that interview. We pray for safety but Voila! FLAT TIRE! We pray for healing but all we see is more suffering and sometimes, death.

But that is not all. What about what the article termed as “conflicting prayers”? Just like when two opposing teams both pray to God for help in winning the game. Just like when you pray for fair weather for you to go out while our farmers pray for rain. What about those? Hindi kaya mailto si God sa mga pinaghihingi natin?

Would God say, because you asked for a sunny day, you will have the sun over your head and over yours alone. And you farmer, because you prayed for rain, only your fields will have rain clouds over it. With the two teams, He might say because you both prayed to win the game, you will have the same score all throughout the game. Hey, you’re shooting more than I intended to, pass that ball to your opponent. Go ahead.

So do we know everything about prayer? So how or why are we still asking God?

Wait! Before you get completely discouraged, look at that comforting text again? The one with the giving of good gifts? It’s in Matthew 7:11! What about Luke’s version of the text? Look up Luke 11:7 and onwards. It’s the same illustration, but let us look at the difference of what Jesus said in the end. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). Whoa! Sabi ni Matthew good gifts, pero sabi ni Luke Holy Spirit!

Dear Brethren! When we ask, when we seek and when we knock, God promises the Holy Spirit! And what does it do? I think we already know this as a fact. But if not, look it up at 1 Corinthians 12: 7-11.

Now you realize how much comfort God offers us. He really gives good gifts. He even gives us the best gifts – The Holy Spirit that gives according to our need and abilities. Remember how he granted the prayers of the like of Daniel, Esther, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and all the other prophets? Well, bear in mind, that even though God answered their prayers, things did not always went well with them. But the Spirit was still with them when they went through all those trials. How else could Stephen ask for forgiveness to those who were stoning him?

God still wants us to be persistent and not lose heart. He still wants us to realize that we need to be prayerful. When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he taught not to present a prayer equation or a formula. Rather, he is teaching us that God loves us and wants to give what is best for us – even when that gift may be the things we least expect.

And what greater gifts could we ask for than to be “loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled”? Which all comes with the gift of the Spirit.

May God bless each of us with more faith and more of the Holy Spirit.

Once In A Blue Moon

Tell ya if the moon is blue. So when did it become blue? And why did they call it blue? Why are there so many questions? Should I answer them? Nah.

One day, after ESTRAGEL 4 practice, I came home dead tired. No the practice wasn't that tiring, rather it was fun (great set of exercises from direk arjay). I found my mother as she descended the stairs. She was dressed to go somewhere with my sister.

I saw them out. When I went back home, I went straight to find my slippers. To my disappointment, i found my slippers broken. It was as if someone with feet larger than mine tried to see if it fits. It was a real bad day. Those slippers (they were imitatio havaianas) were just 5 months old!

So instead of sleeping, I immediately went to the market to look for slippers. There were the usual ones: the hundreds of imitation havaianas, the regular slippers, and the not-so-expensive but durable islander sandals. But among those lines of slippers, one shop really caught my eye!

Man!! They still sell Rambo slippers!! It's been years since I last saw one of those! Cool.

I tried to ask how much. It was just enough. But when I looked at the slippers carefully - ugGH!! They were just imitations! RAMBBO!?