Transforming Power of Prayer

Last week, I was able to join Dawn Watch though online. I was really moved by Pastor Bong's message on praying meaningfully.

All of us have prayers and usually our prayers are what we want in life. We ask God for requests may it be small decisions to major ones.  As simple as a prayer like, God if it is your will, may I be able to travel this year, may I be short listed for my dream career, may my business succeed, or that my love life will blossom. We also tend to give God deadlines or even ask for signs, I myself am guilty of that.

When the deadline is up, we see no signs and we find that our prayers are not answered the way we want it, we become frustrated and then rebel against God. We choose to do things our own way because we feel we can't trust God on certain aspects in our lives. We try to control everything and force things to happen in fulfillment of our desires.

We fail to understand God's higher purpose and focus on ourselves rather than on Him.

As Pastor Bong said, Prayer is not about answers but rather an encounter with God. It is not changing the will of God but changing our will to conform to God's will.

The power of prayer is that as we pray unceasingly, we may not know it but we are slowly purified and transformed into the likeness of Christ. We see how big God is and how little our problems are. We see our total dependence on Him and we are humbled by knowing that we alone cannot make things happen without Him.

The best answered prayers are the prayers that we wait upon and pray earnestly for. And the reward of that answered prayer pales in comparison for the relationship that has been established between you and God.

Never stop praying. Pastor Bong reminds us with this:

If the request is wrong, God says no.

If the timing is wrong, God says slow.

If you are wrong, God says grow.

BUT...

If your request is right,

timing is right,

you are right, God says YES. God says GO.

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God knows what is best for us. He knows our deepest desires even before we speak about them. We may think that earthly riches would make us happy, but God gives so much more to make us happy when we seek Him first. He gives us all things for us to enjoy.

"Pray sincerely, never stop knocking.

Pray until His kingdom is established in our hearts.

Pray until we conform our hearts to God's plan.

Pray until God becomes bigger.

Pray until HE becomes your everything."