Prayer

Psalm 145:18

"The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."

          So, if you haven't figured out from the verse and the title of this entry what I will be talking about, today's topic is prayer. This is a rather difficult topic to explain and discuss because people will always ask, "Well, if I prayed for something, why didn't God give me what I asked for?!" or, "I prayed for God to heal this person and He didn't. Does He even care, then?" 

The answer is simple, really:

James 4:3

"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

          This verse may seem a bit harsh in response to the second question. This is probably because I didn't give you a verse in response to it yet.

James 5:13-15

"Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven."

1 John 5:14-15

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Romans 8:26

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

         These verses explain the importance of praying to God through our troubles and the fact that the Holy Spirit will show us what to pray for. The closer we get to God, the more our prayers will be directed toward what His will is for us. It's rather difficult to understand why God doesn't answer our prayers sometimes, and quite honestly, I cannot give you a good response. I know that God will answer our prayers but not necessarily in the way that we want Him to. When we deal with understanding why God doesn't give us what we ask for, we need to pray to Him and ask for peace for those unresolved moments of our lives that frustrate us to no end. All we can do is trust God that He will provide exactly what we need whether we know to ask for it or not.

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Not a One-Way Communication

I don`t have a lot to say about prayer, but what I do have to say may be useful to you. Prayer is not a one way communication. As a Catholic, I always open up in prayer with the Sign of the Cross. I was taught that you do it as a remembrance that Jesus died on the cross. As a little kid, I was taught that the Sign of the Cross was also like a phone number, calling out to Jesus.

One thing I think that you have to realize about prayer is that you can`t just block Jesus out of the conversation. Is that what you would do to your best friend? How would your friend like it if you just talked the whole entire time?

There are so many different types of prayer to be used to reach out to Jesus. So many different ways to find the right way for you and Jesus. I encourage you to find the right way for you.

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Prayer

Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

It's good to pray for everything that you do, no matter what it is. No matter how small you may think your problem is, God wants you to pray to Him about it. Maybe it isn't even a problem, maybe you're rejoicing about something, God wants you to pray to him about that too, thanking him and praising Him in everything. Everything that you do and go through, God wants to be there with you. Do not be anxious, and put all of your trust into God and let Him help you through them, because you can't get through them without God's help.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."

If you ask God for help, he'll help you through it as much as possible. Whether it be through the way you wanted, or something completely different. Whatever that way is, God will help you. you just have to trust Him and allow Him to help you with whatever you're dealing with.

Psalm 18: 6 says, "In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears."

God hears all of your prayers, no matter how big or small they may be. Whether you think they're important or not, they're all important to God. Even if He doesn't answer your prayer right away, or at all, He always listens. You just have to be patient with Him and trust Him.

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Fasting

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

I have learned through this teaching that fasting actually can be a super important part in a relationship with God. I used to think the opposite; that fasting was something of Biblical times that wouldn’t actually provide results nowadays. However, just hearing about all of the miraculous things that God can and has done through fasting in the present times makes me want to try fasting. The thing is that I probably wouldn’t do a food fast because I don’t think that would have a huge impact on my relationship with God, yet a technology fast would. I spend so much of my time watching TV, being on my phone, etc., and that is valuable time that I could be spending in communion with God. I am really hoping that in the near future I would try a fast so that I would get to spend that extra time with God and see how he works in my life. 

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Prayer

Why do we forget to pray?

Sometimes we forget how powerful prayer is. We often say "I don't have time," or we don't know when we can sit down and pray. Honestly we DO have time to pray; we are always so caught up with life that we forget how important it is to pray for everything in our life.  

Ever since I can remember, I have always believed in prayer. I would always pray when I was younger without a reason, so now I need a reason to pray?  I don't think so.  I think that we just try to find whatever excuses we can. Prayer can do so much in our lives if we really just let it all go and give it to God.  The really hard thing about praying is actually letting it all go, and praying with out fear that God won't do what is supposed to happen in this. When we pray we have to actually mean it not just go through the motions of what you are praying for, God wants to hear from us everyday even thought he knows what is going on. God wants to help us through all our struggles and help us with life, but if we are not willing to pray and ask for help from our Creator then are we really willing to let him help us though our struggles? 

If we have time to check social media, respond to a text, or even answer a phone call we have time to pray. We try to take everything on our own and let God talk to us but not actually listen. If we listened our outcome would be so amazing. To let everything actually go and God's will be done through prayer is amazing, not just one prayer is going to heal everything, but, through time, God will show us light. Every dark road has a very amazing ending to it. Take the time to pray and let it go to God. Prayer is amazing thing, and amazing things happen when you pray about it and let it be in God's hands. Be the godly person God wants us to be, share how amazing prayer is. Don't ever use the excuses "I don't have time" ever again. You always have time to pray to God! 

  

Psalm: 4:1

"Answer me when I call you, my righteous God. Give me relief fro my distress; have mercy on me and hear mt prayer."

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life In Highschool

 High school, the way I see it it can either be the some of the best years of your teenage years or the worst. I remember watching high school musical as a young child dreaming of how wonderful high school would be. I thought I would meet a "Troy" and the everyday would be a fairy tale with me as the main character. That was not what happened AT ALL. Last year, as a freshman I was faced with the most difficult things I had ever experienced so far in all my sixteen years of life. I spent months gripped with anxiety. I hated my school, had zero friends, and my relationship with the Lord got really hard and really real. My anxiety caused me to stop enjoying anything. I didn't eat, I didn't laugh, I saw almost no value in life. My parents grew angry with me because they didn't understand that I could not control it. I finished the school and was destined to head to an new one called "Faith Bible" in the fall. When that time rolled around and the first day of school came I fell absolutely in love with the school and the people. My relationship with the Lord has gotten so much stronger and I feel him with me everyday. 
                       I want people to understand that he was the ONLY one who got me out of the pit I was in. My OCD/anxiety is still with me and will be for the rest of my life, but the Lord has taught me to rely on Him and I learned that it can even be a blessing.
                      My adventure in High school is still being written and I am excited to see what else God is going to do in my life.

                                                               1 Peter 5:7

               Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

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PRAYER

Feel guided by the Holy Spirit. During prayer I always thought that I had to sound really precise and intricate, but today I realize it should not be that way. Prayer is communication between us and God. A prayer can simply be a talking to God in your car or a simple thought, for it says in the Bible that when we do not know how to pray the Holy Spirit will intervene. Prayer is simply a way to connect with God, sure he hears us even when we don't pray, but prayer is a form of worshiping him for we are humbling ourselves down before him. Looking back on my life, all the times that I did not feel like praying were the times I needed to pray the most. I did not want to humble myself before Him because I thought I had everything under control. Control has got to be one of the most common reasons why we do not want to pray about something. It is always our own pride that gets in the way of our relationship with God. We think we have so much control over almost every situation. I hate to have to break the news, we have only as much control as a little insect. We have no control on what the day of tomorrow brings and unfortunately we can be stomped on at any time, without expectation. The only thing, that we as Christians, can rely on is Gods grace and plead for his guidance. Faith is the basis for every religion. Through faith the Lord can even perform miracles through you.

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