Reflections from Life Conference part 3: Hope and prayer
The 3rd set of reflections that I had from Life Conference came from the workshop on the 2nd day plus some of the sermons after that.
The workshop topic was "Secret to the Christian Life", and it was actually about prayer. Sounds pretty simple huh? But in truth, many of us underestimate the importance and power that lies in prayer. Prayer is about communicating with God and seeking to do His will. It's also a way that we approach God with humility and acknowledge His ways are above ours. We sometimes tend to neglect prayer, but if Jesus Himself relied so heavily on prayer, then what about us? I've heard many prophetic words about our generation being a crucial and influential one. If our generation becomes a prayerless generation, it would be a very bad sign for the church...
Prayer and hope may seem unrelated, but I've come to realise that they do affect each other. Hope is one thing that can keep us going even in difficult times, and it is a very strong source of strength. However, once it is lost, the effects can be quite devastating. We often pray for things that we hope for, whether it's for ourselves or for our friends. Yet, once we feel that these hopes can never become reality, we give up, lose hope and often stop praying for these things. We often feel that we are incapable of so much, plus sometimes we mess things up. After that, the likelihood of things turning out well seems rather slim and things become hopeless for us. We then give up, lose hope and stop praying about it.
One of the things that I'm reminded of is that it was never up to us, but up to God, to fulfil these hopes. We tend to underestimate God's power, and feel that even God's power is no match for our messing up. Or sometimes, the possible of some things happening seems so unlikely that even God can't make it happen. But God is a miracle worker, and sometimes all we have to do is pray consistently. God works things in His time, which sometimes could mean years to us. Yet, we have to keep praying, and know that God is a powerful God who can use both our successes and our failures in His way.
During these sermons, I was led to think about things that I had given up praying for, and rekindled the desire to pray for these things again. What are the things that we have given up on? Maybe it's time to start praying for those things again.
The workshop topic was "Secret to the Christian Life", and it was actually about prayer. Sounds pretty simple huh? But in truth, many of us underestimate the importance and power that lies in prayer. Prayer is about communicating with God and seeking to do His will. It's also a way that we approach God with humility and acknowledge His ways are above ours. We sometimes tend to neglect prayer, but if Jesus Himself relied so heavily on prayer, then what about us? I've heard many prophetic words about our generation being a crucial and influential one. If our generation becomes a prayerless generation, it would be a very bad sign for the church...
Prayer and hope may seem unrelated, but I've come to realise that they do affect each other. Hope is one thing that can keep us going even in difficult times, and it is a very strong source of strength. However, once it is lost, the effects can be quite devastating. We often pray for things that we hope for, whether it's for ourselves or for our friends. Yet, once we feel that these hopes can never become reality, we give up, lose hope and often stop praying for these things. We often feel that we are incapable of so much, plus sometimes we mess things up. After that, the likelihood of things turning out well seems rather slim and things become hopeless for us. We then give up, lose hope and stop praying about it.
One of the things that I'm reminded of is that it was never up to us, but up to God, to fulfil these hopes. We tend to underestimate God's power, and feel that even God's power is no match for our messing up. Or sometimes, the possible of some things happening seems so unlikely that even God can't make it happen. But God is a miracle worker, and sometimes all we have to do is pray consistently. God works things in His time, which sometimes could mean years to us. Yet, we have to keep praying, and know that God is a powerful God who can use both our successes and our failures in His way.
During these sermons, I was led to think about things that I had given up praying for, and rekindled the desire to pray for these things again. What are the things that we have given up on? Maybe it's time to start praying for those things again.
posted by Guangrong at
11:15 am
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