at prayer meeting tonight Pastor reiterated how prayer can change things…how we can pray for preservation, and truly the Lord will preserve. how we can ask the Lord to deliver, and He will. He will cover our head, and give us strength. only thing is, sometimes we don’t believe, and don’t dare to pray.

then he talked about how when David was given the task by Saul of killing a hundred Philistines (and mighty strong men they were), he returned with twice the number…it was not an easy task! but truly the Lord preserved him, beyond that one incident with Goliath. (1 Samuel 18) and also, how when Peter was imprisoned and the church was praying for him, their prayers were answered and in the midst of another time of prayer Peter appeared at their door. his chains had been loosed and he walked right out of prison. deliverance indeed! yet despite all the many prayers offered up for Peter, the people almost could not believe how it really was Peter standing there. (Acts 12) do we sometimes also doubt our prayers?

one thing that i’ve been thinking about from time to time, and that came back to me again just now, is how i sometimes am not sure if i believe when i pray. like, i believe that God is able to bring it to pass, but sometimes i feel like i should be prepared for the occasion that He does not, because of a greater purpose. and even then i can be sure in my head that He will be there to bring us through things, to continue shaping and guiding us. but i’m scared. i’m so scared that some things i really want to pray for may not happen. but Pastor said that these things are sometimes allowed to happen as exceptions, if the Lord has something else in mind more important. but when we pray, we pray along the general rule of things, not according to exceptions. and should the exceptions occur, our promise is that even then, the Lord is with us.

i’ve heard quite a few happy stories about old people coming to know the Lord, and i’m really happy for them…but sometimes i wonder why it seems such an impossibility for me. but if prayer can change things, then won’t i believe? it’s a different thing to find what i say is faith in actuality.

“Assuredly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to this fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
(Matthew 21: 21-22) 

on following, from oswald chambers

“In following our Lord Jesus Christ we are not following His followers…We are not called to follow in all the footsteps of the saints, but only insofar as they followed their Lord. The great meaning of following is that we imitate as children, not as monkeys.
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The joy of anything, from a blade of grass upward, is to fulfil its created purpose ‘that we should be to the praise of His glory’ (Ephesians 1:12). We are not here to win souls, to do good to others. This is the natural outcome but it is not our aim, and this is where so many of us cease to be followers. We will follow God as long as He makes us a blessing to others, but when He does not, we will not follow…We get switched off when instead of following God we follow Christian work and workers.
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The life of God is manifested in our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to do His Father’s will; then when we are following Him, it will be a matter of indifference whether God puts us in the forefront or in the back seat. When we realise this, then the joy of the Lord is ours because we are fulfilling our regenerated purpose…God engineers our circumstances as He did those of His Son; all we have to do is to follow where He places us. The majority of us are busy trying to place ourselves.
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The way God’s life manifests itself in joy is in a peace which has no desire for praise. When a man delievers a message that he knows is a message of God, the witness to the fulfillment of the created purpose is given instantly. The peace of God settles down, and the man cares for neither praise nor blame from anyone. That is the joy of the life of God; it is uncrushable life, and there is never life without joy.”