The Prayer Life of a Christian

One of the advantages of being a Christian is the fellowship we have been called unto in Christ. When we come in union with Christ through our Faith in his blood, we come in fellowship with God our father. However, our confidence in this fellowship is seen in our praying life. Prayer is our way of engaging this fellowship and the results are numerous. I can only know how much you know about prayer when I actually see you pray, not when you talk about it often. Our knowledge about prayer does nothing compared to when we actually spend time praying.

Our constant prayers to God shows our dependence on Him. Sometimes we want to be perfectionist, doing things in our own way, but soon realize that there is a limit to what we have control over. Praying helps us build confidence in Him who controls the heart of the king. After praying, we also discover that while events might not play out the way we desire, Our father always has His way of doing things which will always bring better results than when we try with our limited abilities.  The bible tells us not to trust in our own understanding but to acknowledge God in all our ways. When all the business plan is written and all the money generating ideas are about to be worked on, we still need to pray about them. Sometimes not so much that the venture can work, but to involve God in whatever we do. We can achieve much more with God than on our own.

Don’t Take Offence

In our last article, we saw how the Syrophoenician woman got the healing of her daughter along with a commendation from Christ because she refused to be offended and persisted till the end. We will in this piece look more closely at offence and how to correctly relate with it.

Offence is simply a cause or occasion of stumbling or sin, any action or words spoken against your person that could cause you to be displeased or angry. Hardly will a day go by that you will not have a reason to be offended. As long as we are in this world, there will always be a cause for displeasure, a reason to be angry. But the choice to be angry or offended is yours and we will dwell more on this later, first what are the consequences of getting offended.

As can be seen in Matt 15:22-30 (The Syrophoenician woman’s story), taking offence can deny you of your progress or desired goal. It distracts you and whittles away the energy needed for success. You spend time and resources dwelling and reacting to an offence thereby draining the present of the same resources. One of the greatest tool the enemy is using in the church today is offences, you see brethren refusing to work with each other because of years-old grudges.

Taking offences could also have ramifications far beyond the immediate action. You will be surprised how many persons are in prison today because of actions done in a fit of anger, they just had to react to a slight. A momentary loss of control and years of consequences. There is no better example than those of Simeon and Levi, brothers-in-arm who got offended that their sister was raped and took revenge on a whole city (Gen 34). Hear their fathers’ blessing (verdict seems more apt) on them “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Gen 49:5-7). For that singular act, their generations were scattered abroad and the scepter of authority was given to their younger brother. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools (Eccl 7:9).