Prayer stations

I’m really tired right now. It has been quite a long day today at church. But amidst the fatigue, I do find a lot of comfort in the fact that prayer stations are finally over.

It has been a heavy two weeks of preparation for the prayer stations, especially doing up the materials. There were countless times we had to make changes to the materials even up to the very last day, Thursday night, 11pm, the day before we set up the prayer stations on Good Friday.

There has been a lot of doubt, distress and uncertainty, especially when I was doing the prayer stations, I felt that I was relying upon my own strength. I felt that I was doing up the materials simply to meet deadlines and please people.

The task of creating the materials was a very dangerous ones, since all the youths would be using them. Any theological mistakes could actually pose as a stumbling block to them. I really felt the need of doing up the materials well.

I did the materials with some prayers for God to work. But somehow, there was still the sense of fear that the materials would be unsuitable and irrelevant.

Finally, after lots of vetting through by the adults, the materials were finalised. But still, there wasn’t the peace in my heart that the materials would be good enough to impact the youths.

It was only until yesterday and today that I really felt that God answered my prayers about the prayer stations. I realised that it wasn’t about the materials. It was about God.

I thank God that each time I doubted, he brought me back to him, the very person himself.

I thank God for making me realise how incapable I was to write the prayer stations, that it was impossible for me to impact the youths with the materials, no matter how hard I try. I realised that it needed more than materials to impact lives, it required God.

I really love this verse in 2 Cor 12:9, ‘”My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.’

Thank God that only when I am weak, I can be strong. Thank God that we were incapable and that we could do nothing, so that he can manifest his power through it. Thank God that we are merely the channels and he is the source of power.

I was reading through some sermon notes on Matthew 14:22-31, the incident of Jesus and Peter walking on water.

One thing that really struck me was the fact that Peter walked on water. If Jesus walking on water was a great miracle, then Peter walking on water was a even greater miracle. Walking on water can be likened to an impossible situation in our life.

I was thinking today that it really applied to my situation. For every single person in the youth ministry to be impacted by God today during prayer stations was my impossible situation.

It seems impossible, or I could even say it was impossible. But I really drew a lot of strength from this passage.

I realised how great Peter’s faith was to have even walked on water for a while, though he sank. If i was there, I would definitely not even step into the water.

There was one factor that determined whether Peter stayed afloat: it was fixing his eyes on Jesus. When Peter fixed his eyes on Jesus, he could walk on water. When he was worried about sinking, he sank.

I was relating this to my situation. That would mean, for an impossible situation, if I was worried that it would be impossible, it would really be impossible. But if I fixed my eyes on Jesus, the impossible could be possible.

Hebrews 12:2a - ‘Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith’

It was really comforting to know that by fixing our eyes on Jesus, our faith can be perfected. And Jesus says that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move a mountain. Then, if someone would have faith made perfect, there wouldn’t be limits to what God can do through him.

The prayer stations went through really smooth today. It was so comforting to see the youths praying and most importantly praying together about the church and about loving each other deeper.

Thank God and Praise God for what he has done and what he will continue to do!

Prayer Station #5: Worship

The word ‘worship’ literally means bow or serve. It gives us a picture of a lowly servant prostrating before a king with knees bended and face hidden.

Do we have the same picture when we come before the Lord of the most high, the King above all Kings? Pause and take a moment here to reflect upon how you have been coming before God. Have you been coming before him with reverence or before him in flippancy?

Psalms 2:11 says ‘Worship the Lord with reverence, Ands rejoice with trembling.’

This should be the manner in which we should worship. The Lord of the most high and King above all Kings deserve much more than earthly kings. If we could come before earthly men in reverence, how much more we should approach our God with reverence, fear and trembling.

Now spend some time to pray. If you have not been coming before God in an appropriate manner, do pray for a repentant heart, ask God for forgiveness. Next, ask God for the constant effort to come before him in reverence each time we come together to worship him.

John 4:23, 24 – ‘But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’

In this passage, there are two key elements of worship stated in this verse. There are spirit and truth. These are the two elements that true worshipers of God cannot do without during worship. This is the means of worship.

God is spirit and we can only worship him in our spirit. Our worship must spring forth from the innermost depth of our being just as Psalms 103:1 puts it: ‘Praise the Lord, O my soul, let all that is within me praise His holy name.’ The only way we can reach God is through our innermost being, the indwelling holy spirit.

We ought to worship him also in truth. Our God is a God of truth. When we come before him, we ought to come before him as we really are, with true sincerity and hiding nothing from him. This is how we should worship our Lord.

Spend some time now to ponder over how you worship God. Do you worship with mere externalities (e.g raising of hands, closing of eyes, singing of songs) or do you worship God from your innermost being, the spirit that is in you? Do you come to worship God thinking he is someone you could please with outward action or do you come in truth, as you are, an unworthy sinner before a Holy God? Spend some time to pray for this aspect of worship in your life.

Finally and most importantly, we need to recognise our object of worship. This is what that differentiates our worship from all other religions. In Acts 17:23, Paul rebuked the Men of Athens because they worshiped AN UNKNOWN GOD in ignorance though they were extremely religious. From this, we see that being very religious or even reverent do not really matter if we have the wrong object of worship.

Therefore, it is imperative to know who we really worship. We worship the God who made the world and all things in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, the one who gives to all life and breath (Acts 17:24, 25). Only then, our worship can be truly meaningful and purposeful.

Romans 12:1 sums up worship very beautifully. ‘I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.’

Very often, we do have misconceptions that worship is all about singing praise and worship songs. But actually, singing praise and worship songs are just one of the many forms of worship. Our lives, presented to God, are already worship in his eyes.

Spend some time now to pray. Focus your attention upon God. Spend some time now to worship him and praise him, simply for who he is and what he has done for us.

Prayer station #3: Fellowship

Questions to ponder about before reading on:

1) What does fellowship mean to you personally?

2) What is the difference between fellowship with people in church and friendship in school, workplace etc?

Jesus prayed this prayer for his disciples in John 17:20, 21: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent me.”

This portion of prayer gives us a glimpse of Jesus’ heart for all his disciples, which includes all of us who believe in him. What a comforting thing it really is to know that Jesus actually prays for his disciples! And here, he prays, not just for his disciples at that time, but also for all who believes in him—Us!

What he prayed for must have been a real desire in his heart and it is that we may all be one.

What does it mean for us to all be one?

Romans 12:5 – ‘so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.’

From Romans 12:5, we see how oneness relates to the body of Christ.

Imagine yourself wanting to go to the kitchen to get a glass of water. But something strange happens: your legs say that they want to walk to the balcony, your hands say that they want to grab something from your bedroom and your eyes want to be in the living room to watch a television program. Do you think you would be able to get the glass of water in the kitchen?

This is just an example of disobedient, disunited body parts. But what about the body of Christ? Are we one body or are we simply disunited body parts?

The body has to be one before it could even start accomplishing anything. The different parts need to belong to each other before anything can begin. Hence, it needs a common mind and a common goal.

Now let us imagine a little further. What difference would it make if you want to get a glass of water in the kitchen, but all your body parts decide in unity to boycott your decision and stay in the bedroom? Though your body is united, would you be able to accomplish the task you seek to do?

That is the reason why Jesus prayed for something else apart from all of us being one in John 17:21. He prayed that ‘they may all be one even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us’.

The body doesn’t just have to be one with each other. It has also got to be one with the owner of the body, which is in this case, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The oneness that we share with each other and with our Lord Jesus Christ is fellowship.

In Acts 2: 44-45, we see a glimpse of how fellowship was like in the early church. “And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”

Very often we can’t tell the difference between fellowship and close friendship. But there is a very distinct difference, as we can see from the example of the early church. They didn’t just have many things in common like close friends did, but they had all things in common, even to the extent of sharing their property and possessions. It was possible because they shared the life of Jesus Christ.

That was true deep fellowship: the sharing of lives with one and another, with Jesus Christ being the common ground.

Now spend some time think of as many in this church that have crossed your life in one way or another. These people are your fellow members in the body of Christ.

Spend some time to ponder over your relationship with them. How close are these people to you? Do you share very close brother-sister relationships with? Are you uncomfortable to share with them your life during DG sessions? Spend some time to pray for increasing openness to share.

Finally, spend time pray that fellowship in church would be deepened and broadened, and above all, that it would Christ-centered (Christ being the common ground for fellowship)