One may think, "why pray?"...

One may think, "why pray?" After all, life happens: circumstances are not perfect but we can overcome, human bodies all fail, we all face hardships and experience good times. Nothing new under the sun. God knows everything that is happening. He knows when we face a difficult situation. He knows when we are suffering. He knows everything. So why pray about those things? What difference do prayers really make?

One thing we can see when we read the Bible is that Jesus prayed and that He also asked His disciples to pray (Matthew 26:38). Jesus recommends pray for different situations as well, such as in setting the child free of the mute spirit in Mark 9:29.

Let's look at it from God's perspective for a minute. When He created the earth, He created man in His image and likeness and told them to rule over the earth and subdue it. He gave man authority here. Man even named the animals, thus co-creating this world with God. Man was a co-worker with God in overseeing this world. Man had a say in how things would go here on earth.

After Jesus' death and resurrection, all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus (Matthew 28:18). With that authority, Jesus commissions his disciples to go into the world and make disciples and any who believe, signs will follow them (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16: 17-18). In other words, He gave spiritual authority back to men that believe in Him.

Putting these things two things together, that God originally intended for man to rule on the earth with Him and have a say in how things go on this earth and that Jesus, having all authority, gave authority to believers, these two things are grounds for why we should pray: BECAUSE GOD INTENDED FOR US TO MAKE AN IMPACT WITH OUR PRAYERS! :)

When we talk to God about what is going on, when we make declarations of His truth over our situations, when we command things to come into existence or situations to change, there is power in our words that are in agreement with the Lord, his heart, ways and truth. God desires for us to pray; things that happen on earth are not just going to go a certain way because that is the way that they are going to go. Situations can be changed. We can co-work with God to change lives, events and history.

Some may think, I don't know what to pray or how to pray. Well, Jesus taught some things on how to pray in Luke 18 and Matthew 6 that we can look and learn from. But know this: we should not worry to much about how to pray; just pray. What do I mean by just pray? Start by just talking to your Father in Heaven, your Creator, the One that knows us inside out. We can talk to Him just as you talk to our parents, spouse, or best friend.

Also, spending time with God reading and thinking about His word or talking to Him in pray and getting familiar with His Holy Spirit's voice is essential to developing a fulfilling prayer life (whether it is prayer time or throughout the day talking to God). The Scriptures tell us things that the Holy Spirit will tell us: teach us all things, comfort us and remind us of His truth (1 John 2:27, John 14:26). God will help us to know His heart so that we can pray in agreement with Him. 

Praying is one way that we can fulfill God's will for our lives as His co-ruling creation.

One thing I would like non-Christians to know....Though there are many

As I walked down the street in Old Town to go get some lunch, the Lord spoke to me about a young guy waiting for the bus. So I went to talk with Him. I shared the word I got for Him, which was semi hard to do because of the nature of the word. I then shared that their is hope in Jesus. He mentioned that he was not Christian but that His parents were religious. When I asked him what religion, he said Christian. He also said he was glad I shared that with him because felt hopeless. After talking, he said that in time he may just be a Christian. I asked to pray for him, and he said ok, however would not disclose his real name, as he was afraid to share his identity.

This conversation struck something in my mind: his worldview of Christianity came from his home. So what did he see in his home that made him think of Christianity as a religion, as something he didn't want to be a part of now? What from our conversation made him think about coming around later?

Ever since I have been a Christian, I always felt uncomfortable with calling Christianity a religion and Christians religious people. This may go along with my misconception of the word religion and what it means. Because of this misconception, people undermine  what Christian life really is about.

So what is the misconception? What do you think of when you think of the word "RELIGION"?

I feel that for many people, the word religion is associated with the word church. What they have seen church looks like, or even what church goers look like, is what they view as religion. For me, when I think of the word "religion," I get a sense of stiff and rigid. The word gives me a distant feel and reminds me of rituals and systematic events. I also think of a gathering of people in a building where there is music and no one saying anything, just sitting there quietly with nice clothes on. Where do I get this viewpoint from? It is really hard to say. Perhaps my view of the anti-social gathering comes from childhood. But the other things that I think of when I think of religion, it is really hard for me to say where I get that idea. I can only assume it came from a series of things that I have been exposed to throughout my life that were "religious." All of these things I experienced before actually meeting Jesus personally. That is actually how I viewed what Christians were doing. But when I went to a Christian gathering after meeting Jesus, I did not get the same feeling at all. 

If we look to the Bible we can see from Apostle Paul's example that he had the wrong view of Christianity before he encountered the true and living God. He hated Christians and thought they were actually going against God. For more on this, read the Bible in Acts starting at the end of chapter 7 to the end of chapter 9. Most people don't have this particular perspective on Christianity. Instead, they view it a religion of do's, don'ts and restrictions--something that will take away their freedom or make them have a boring life. But this is the wrong view too, at least in my experience and every Christian that I have even met, which is a good number of them.

So, what is it about meeting Jesus that makes the difference in the way I view Christianity? After I had an encounter with the Living God, going to a gathering wasn't about the social event itself, but rather it was about getting to spend time with, talk to and know God. Encountering Jesus made God real and personal to me, not distant. I could no longer view Christianity as a religion, though it is according to the real denotation of the word. I could no longer connote Christianity with religion in the same way that I did. And that is because there hasn't been a day that has gone by that my life as a Christian has been uninteresting, dry, rigid, anti-social, systematic, etc. Instead, it has been alive, fresh, exciting, adventurous, suspenseful, invigorating, peaceful and free. 

Most importantly Christian life has been a life of learning. I have been way more open to be taught and to learn than ever before. Furthermore, I cannot say that I know everything. There are some things I can say I know for sure, such as God is real, His Son Jesus is real, Jesus came to save and not condemn, He saved me from the power and penalty of sin, He loves me, He is faithful, His Holy Spirit is living in me and works on the earth through His people and His word is truth. These are the only things I can think of at the moment that I can say for certain that I know. Outside of this, there are many grey areas that I am learning more and more about each day. I know the things that I know not only because they are written about in the Bible, but because they have been confirmed to me in my real life through experience and because of this, I believe that anyone else can have the same opportunity to know these same things for certain. 

BUT, as for the other things in the grey areas, like what church should look like, what actions we should take in our day to day lives to confirm our faith and give identify ourselves as Christians, those I say I don't know everything about. I can learn some things from the Bible about these things, but because the church exists among people, I can expect for either misinterpretation, or varied interpretation thus leading to varied expressions of faith. 

Because of this, the thing I would love a non-Christian to know through this blog post is that Christians don't know everything and what you see from an outside perspective that may make it seem religious, there is way more to it than that. Though sometimes out of our immaturity, a Christian may say things with absoluteness in their tone of voice, we still do not know everything. Therefore, one person should not just get their view of a whole "religion" without doing 2 things: 1. looking into it themselves by going to events, talking with people, allowing others to pray for them, reading the Bible, etc. and 2. seeking to encounter the true and living God personally by asking Him to do so.