Category: Prayer

This is war

One week before Halloween last year, the neighbor across my house erected a purple inflatable witch with a black hat on the top and green fingers like craws stretching out in the front yard. This is the beginning of my fighting of prayer. Every morning, I walked by and prayed in my neighborhood. In the end of day, the witch inflatable leaked air and bent the waist bowing down. However, my neighbor was determined and inflated it again each day. So I kept praying. On the night of Halloween, this witch was totally “dead”, lying flat on the ground.

After the victory last year, I plan to pray again one week before Halloween this year. But my neighbor took out the witch inflatable in the beginning of October. So I am going to pray earlier than the date I planned.

The Bible tells us: Fearing God is hating evil (Proverbs 8:13). I once saw a festival of “Pagan’s pride” celebrated in Minnehaha Fall Park. The attendants who dressed up for that exactly like for the Halloween: witch, painted face of death, and horrible figures. This tell us that Halloween is the display of pagans’ pride, who are proud of being company with darkness, rather than enjoying the lovely light and truth.

My children thought I am not “Americanized” enough to celebrate the Halloween. I told them the story from an American missionary, uncle M, who was invited to share his story in our Sunday School. He has been a missionary for more than 20 years. When he travels to Asia and Africa, he saw how the devil persecuted Christians from torturing or killing them to burning down their churches. He told me that he never wants to give Satan a foothold to rob him of God’s truth by naively or ignorantly participating in the evil activities.

Remember: One step closer to the evil darkness is one step away from the righteous God. And our God is a consuming fire (Hebrew 12:29). His justice will burn down all the evil unrighteousness. Only through Jesus Christ’ blood of righteousness like fire-proof coat in the fire, the forgiven sinners won’t be consumed.

Please join me to pray for our family, neighborhood and the nations. I have asked God for the strategy and I want to write it down for calling all the saints to pray to advance His Kingdom.

Psalm 96 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for He comes, He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His truth.

Therefore, my prayer this week will firstly praise God. I choose several songs focusing on His attributes and sing aloud at home or walking in the neighborhood. When you worship in singing, you can feel free to pause and pray whatever God prompts in your heart.

Shine, Jesus shine.
How Great is our God.
Majesty.
Our God reigns.
Holy, Holy, Holy.
Great is thy faithfulness.
Then sings my soul.

This is war. Day14

When would you cry out to God in your trouble? There might be three situations coming to our reality:
Some people may suffer for bitter labor in an unfair working environment. But their attitude of pride put their hearts in constant grumbling and the deepest gloom, like prisoners suffering in iron chains.
Some people may become foolish to beat themselves up by demanding things in their own selfish ways. They become depressed and loathe all food, drawing near the gates of death.
Other people may suddenly encounter disaster or crisis in life and are at their wits’ end. Their courage are melted away in their peril.
However, there’s a hope.
The Bible says: “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.” (Psalms 107:19)
It’s not a shame to have trouble. But it’s a shame not to ask for help. The good and loving God is opening His ears to listen and His arms to embrace you when you ask Him in the name of Jesus Christ for wisdom and deliverance with a broken and contrite heart .
So I pray: Lord, God, our pride and evil bondage keep us from crying out to You in our trouble. When the situations strike us, may You give us humility to come to Jesus Christ for help. Then, You will bring us out of darkness and break away our chains. You will send forth Your word and heal us. You will still the storm of our life and guide us to the desired haven. As a result, we can sing our thanks and praise to You with all our hearts.

This is the war. Day12

A baby boy was born blind and abandoned on the street in Taiwan. He was sent to the orphanage and well taken care by the staff. He grew up with a joyful heart because he received a lot of love. Whenever he struggled with his physical blindness, he remembered how greatly he was loved by “many fathers and many mothers” in the orphanage. The eyes of his spirit are bright.
Later on, a pastor taught him to play Saxophone and he loved the music and carried the musical instrument with him all the time. He studied in the special aid school called Huei-Ming, which organized a music group for the students to play music. This group was invited to perform in many places including prisons. The prisoners were touched by his gratitude to God in his weakness.
The joyful attitude of the handicapped people often make healthy people feel shameful because the physical healthy people with unhealthy soul often take what they are given for granted.
Therefore, if we often feel not satisfied in our heart, why not come to ask God to check if there’s any illness in our soul?
The Bible says: “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.’” (Romans 3:10-11)
So I pray: Lord, God, “No one is good” is Your diagnosis of every person’s spiritual health. You, as our Creator, know humans’ situation so well that You sent Jesus Christ to come to heal the brokenness in our soul. May You open our spiritual eyes to see our souls are sick and need Your healing through receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior and the Lord.

This is the war. Day11

If you receive foreign currency, without knowing which country it is from and its foreign exchange-rate, you have no clue about how much it is worth.
Likewise, if you want to know your value, you have to find the right measurement from the origin that you are from.
Knowing your value is the only way of restoring your self-esteem. But with what unit do you measure your value? The world teaches us to value our value by the unit of social status, financial condition, people’s praise, virtues, or achievement, etc. But sooner or later, such kind of self-esteem will pop out like bubble when we don’t live up to the standard of the secular measurement.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to reveal to humans the right measurement for our value: we are created in the image of the infinite God.
Even though we are mortal and finite in this life, we are given potential and power to rule over the earth. Don’t you want to know this potential and power He grants each of us? If you do, how will you find it?
Jesus uses the natural law to explain the spiritual law. He says:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)For bearing much fruit in your life, your pride and self-dependence need to go away. Look at a farmer. He plants the seed and then waits in expectation for God to make it grow. Likewise, you first receive and plant the seed of the gospel to your heart, which is Jesus Christ came to save you by His sacrifice for your sins. Moreover, through regularly coming to learn His truth like watering the seed, and confessing your sins to Him like weeding in the field of your heart, then wait for God’s timing. The seed in your heart in due time will grow to a beautiful abundance of life, one of a kind, designed by Him.
So I pray: Lord, God, please give us a heart of fearing You, not people including ourselves. Therefore, we can hate sins and die to sins, then we will be alive to God in Jesus Christ.

This is the war. Day10

Have you ever cried out to God in the midst of your trouble? Are you seeking His help or wanting to find out what He desires for you? God promises that if you truly seek Him, you will find Him.
God is good and doesn’t force us to love Him even though He has the ability. But He patiently shows us how much He loves us. Every morning, the sun faithfully shines up in the sky to provide heat and light to all the creature. A healthy human body functions in a complicated but efficient way. We are given taste buds for enjoying all kinds of flavors of food rather than just devouring stuff for digestion.
However, when we take all the good things offered by the infinite Heavenly Father for granted like a spoiled child, we may question God in our trouble, demanding an answer by saying something like: “If God is good, why does this happen to me?”
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” (Romans 9:20)
Do we really want to know the answer? Or are we justifying our anger by blowing it out to God? This question is not wrong, but could be hidden with a wrong attitude. For a truth seeker, this question can be rephrased to a prayer like: “In the midst of disaster, what does God want me to learn?” or “How does God help people like me overcome in this situation?” Asking a good question with a humble attitude may bring you beneficial answers.
So I pray: God, when we come to you with a wrong attitude, our questions often reveal the evil darkness in our hearts that we are not thankful and respectful for the all-knowing Creator as finite creature. Lord, please forgive our self-exalting pride to question You in an arrogant way and please teach us to ask You good questions with humility.

This is the war. Day9

If someone lies to you once, it is normal that you give what he says a second thought: is he telling the truth this time?
However, if someone promises you hundreds of things long time ago and he remembers and fulfills them all, it is natural that you want to trust this person with all your heart.
Henry Blackaby, author of “Experiencing God”, refers to the Bible not as what “it says” but what “He says”, meaning what God says. As the author of “The battle plan for prayer” mentioned, the Bible is not like other books you read. When you open the Bible, the Writer of the words is there with you. God is here. God is speaking. God is listening.
Once, I prayed before I opened the Bible to read, I thought about what Holy Spirit is about. I usually pray to God by calling Him “Lord” or “Jesus”. But that day, I heard myself praying, “Abba Father, do I have Holy Spirit in my heart?” Of course, I didn’t hear anything audible. But when I opened the Bible to the page I planned to read, I saw this verse before my eyes: Galatians 4:6, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.””
I was shocked to “hear” the instant reply from God. He is kindly telling me what I want to know to assure of His love for me as His child. Since then, I always pray to God to lead me to read His words.
If you don’t know who God and Jesus Christ is and never read Bible before, why not give yourself a chance to meet Him in the Bible with a seeking heart?
So I pray: Lord, God, the Bible is Your word to tell us about Yourself and teaches us to know who we are so that we may be complete, fully equipped for every good work You design for our lives. May You open our hearts to understand Your divine message through reading the Bible.