What is Prayer to you?

It has been a fast flying week!
With photoshoot going on, somehow time at work passes really fast. But thank God that it's 5 weeks of photoshoot down, about 4-5 weeks to go. Halfway mark le. Gambatte! :)

Had a good time with caregroup yesterday. It's been quite some time since cg has been so spiritually ministering I think. :) Thank God for His presence!
We watched a video from the Alpha Course about Prayer- What is, How and Why should we pray. Many of things about prayer are fundamental and most of us already know them, but they were good reminders and Nicky Gumbel's testimonies touched our hearts.

Some of the things that I remember:

1) Prayer is access to God through the Son, Jesus.
By ourselves, we can't reach God. Unconfessed sins hinders us from knowing our Holy Father. BUT the good news is, we have access through Jesus! Nicky shared a very interesting story about how a soldier could not get access to the President (then Abraham Lincoln) so that he could ask for a deferment/exemption from army service, but when he by chance spoke to a boy at the park, who happened to be Lincoln’s son, the little boy just brought him easily past the guards and right into the Presidential office. :) That’s how too, we reach God! Immediate and direct, no need to climb dagger mountain or dive into the fiery sea (Shang4 Dao1 Shan1, Xia4 Huo2 Hai3 in Mandarin.. hehe). He's right here with us. Listen!

2) In God’s Presence, is love, joy, security!
You’ll know when He is with you.

3) Persist in prayer. God has all eternity to answer. :)
Story of a woman who prayed for 9 years for her rebellious son! Her son was awful, got into all sorts of stuff – gangs, cults, weird practices, fathered a son out of marriage etc. Until one day God really turned things around and he later on grew to become one of the world’s renowned theologians – St Augustine! And Augustine attributed his conversion very much to his mum’s persistent prayer.. this woman’s prayer changed the world indeed.
Eternity is but one second to God who is not confined by time, God has all the power to answer our prayers! Reminds me to not give up in praying for good things, don’t have to ‘help God’ find excuses when he ‘doesn’t answer’.

4) God always answers, just that he sometimes says “Yes!”, sometimes, “Nope!” and other times, “wait, my dear child.”
God knows our future and what is good for us so sometimes he says “No” because he something something else in mind, or what we want is not good for us (perhaps we have wrong motives. *See James 4:2b-3). Shared a quote from Ruth Graham (wife of evangelist Billy Graham) who commented that she thanks God that he didn’t answer her prayers always, if not she would have married the wrong man… several times! Hehe.. How true, isn’t it that we are so glad that God doesn’t say yes to all our prayers! He will open the right doors at the right time. :D

5) Nothing is too hard for God.
Let not our prayers be limited by our own understanding or human limits!
Story about how a man who held unforgiveness against his wife for leaving him turned to God and had a changed life. After which he still faced repeated rejections from his wife for several months and were already midway in divorce when suddenly God touched his wife’s heart and a huge turnaround happened! :D
Reminds me to believe that God can do miracles, even when it seems impossible.

Pray and believe. Because God is the one who’s answering. Not us! :D

*James 4: 2b-3
You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.