God is my friend. He's the only one who puts up with my mess and loves me no matter what. I had a really rough semester and have had to make some unconventional decisions about my college career, and if I didn't have God with me, I'd probably go insane. I didn't understand WHY at the time and I still don't understand everything, but slowly...it's being revealed. I've had to let go of a couple of really 'important' people in my life, and I've had to seperate myself from certain situations. Let's just say, health issues, finance issues, personal stuff, career goals, college performance etc...from someone who usually has it "together". I needed Christ more than ever. (hence my sn). God showed me I needed Him more. Things are getting a lot better, things are BETTER, and I'll share my testimony in a couple of months. I couldn't do it on my own. We can't. I say this all to say...Prayer is NECESSARY AND POWERFUL.Jesus is more than anything I could have ever asked for - not only for what He has done for me, but for who He is. Please read the posts in this thread the one below.
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When we find ourselves wondering about prayer or really feeling like we wanna know God more (like me right now), I feel like that's God inviting us to develop a relationship with HIM or to strengthen it. It's during these times that we learn who GOD is. There's a study that says a lot of people who go to church are going through hardships; I feel like thats been so true for me and for many of us. We often think that we're seeking God, but the truth is, God loves us and is seeking us. He wants to want Him so badly and to know Him and to love Him. When we feel that need to get to know Him, it's like He's tugging at our heart and we're finally realizing it. Let's examine what prayer is.
TO ANSWER THE QUESTION (I have further elaboration on each of the numbers on the bottom). PRAYER:
1. CONFESSION: I think in order to understand prayer to God, we have to understand that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit is the breath of life and lives in dwells in us once we begin a relationship with Christ. We don't have to understand what that means except that we know we want it - we want to have what we've heard about or what we've seen - that peace, that relationship with God. Right now. WE WANT TO KNOW HIM. It starts of simple - just about opening our mouths and minds and hearts and saying, "Lord Jesus Christ, I want you in my life. I accept you as my Savior. I want your Holy Spirit in my life; I want it as my guide. Guide me." And realllllly thinking about this.
You can do it right now. In your bed, in your bathroom, anywhere. Go to this site, it's not too long.
http://www.ccci.org/wij/index.html
2. Conversation with God. Talk to God. He knows what you think and how you feel more than you do, but open your mind and heart and mouth outloud or in your head and talk to him. He hears in every tongue. "GOD HELP ME" It's important to praise God through prayer as well. Prayer is WORSHIP and prayer is PETITION. It's talking. It's being open. It changes overtime. For now, open your mouth. Open your heart. Open your ears. He's always talking; are we listening?
"GOD I WANT TO GET TO KNOW YOU! I WANT TO FEEL YOU!"
"GOD I THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME...GOD I THANK YOU FOR SHOWING ME THE WAY" "PLEASE HELP ME LISTEN BECAUSE I WANT YOU TO BE MY FRIEND" "I LOVE YOU JESUS...I LOVE YOU..."
"GOD I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT MY MAJOR, I KNOW YOU WILL HELP ME FIND OUT WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE ME TO DO"
"GOD I AM DEPRESSED, HELP ME! I PRAY THAT YOU WILL HEAL ME."
Etc.
3. Cultivation: We learn about God in our daily conversations with Him, but he has given us tools that Christians need: the Bible, a good community of Christians, and faith. We cannot do this alone; He gave us these TOOLS for a reason.
1. The Bible. Don't know where to start, what to do? These are two sites I use and greatly recommend:
This is AMAZING. It's my homepage. It also updates lately, but has a lot of questions like "How can God be man and God at the same time?" etc. You can spend anywhere from 2 minutes to hours on it, depending on how much time you have,
http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb.shtml
I think this is a great place to start. It updates daily:
http://www.todayspromise.com/cgi-bin/placetxt.cgi?proc=PAGE&res=main.htm
You can read the Bible here. It's broken up into several pieces:
http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/readingplans/chronological.php
2.
Community: We need a place of worship; where we're growing. I grew up as a Catholic (kind of) but my family is rather evangelic. I was always involved in church, Sunday School, etc...but my relationship really thrived with GOD, with JESUS CHRIST, with the HOLY SPIRIT in college. I went to a non-denominational church. And I went to a
Bible study at my school. I began to read the Bible. The Word became alive. I started singing, I started listening to Christan music...I started attending conferences...my life just changed. And it's still changing (I'm going through a MAJOR life transition now).
3.
FAITH: Things go array often times when we're getting closer to God. People want to tempt us away; we find ourselves in situations where we're like "IS GOD REAL?" It's just the devil trying to bring us down. We have to cultivate our faith. Pray for it. "God, please show me how to have faith in you. HELP ME LORD. I WANT TO BELIEVE IN YOU." And faith is cultivated by praying, by worship, by Bible studies....This is all prayer. It's all connected.
I pray that God leads you. I know He will.
Remember God knows your desire, and He honors you when you open your mouth and say it. Its like a good friend, He may know what you're thinking and what you're saying but He wants you to tell him.
I highly recommend the Bible, the websites, and a book called "Good Morning Holy Spirit" by Benny Hinn. I highly recommend finding a good church or listening to church sermons online. It may feel overwhelming but one day at a time...=)
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