HEART REVEALING PRAYER

"I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower with inner strength through His Spirit," Ephesians 3:16 Listen to a prayer and you can somehow glimpse what's inside the heart. Take the time to hear your own prayers, maybe you can write them down and then visit them again after sometime. It is here that you will discover your spiritual state. Your prayers unveil the depth of your heart. It is interesting to see that through our prayers we somehow see, not wrong prayers, but shallow prayers. Here we are made aware that the kind of requests we ask God are more often self-serving and not centered on seeking God's glory. If you find that your prayers are too shallow, don't be disappointed . . . we all start here. Keep praying, keep calling, keep enjoying the presence of God . . . soon you will see spiritual depth in your prayers. When prayers are no longer offered to serve our purposes; when praying for others aside from our close family circles are desired; when seeking God is our main preoccupation in prayer, then we are leaving the shallow waters. Paul prayed for inner strength by the power of the Holy Spirit. Honestly, I don't find this in my prayers. To be candid about it, only when I am in an emergency or in dire need do I realize the need for inner strength. A whole lot of my prayers reveal my concern for the external welfare rather than what's really happening inside. Thank God for His tolerance! I think the application to all of the lessons on prayer is to actually start PRAYING! Yes, shallow prayers at first . . . then we enter into God-centered prayers. Whenever we pray, God is doing something that only He can do. Remember, this happens every time you and I pray. God is relating to us, sustaining, cleansing, directing, convicting. Yes, prayer changes things . . . but more than that, God is changing the one who prays! Soon you and I will see some changes in our prayers. Instead of just asking things for ourselves, we now desire to want what God wants us to have! Let us all be fervent in prayers, for when we pray, God is doing a miracle of transformation. Listen to your prayers and see your heart! Prayerfully, Rev. Arnel Tan