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GENERAL, Prayer

Prayer; The Heart Matters

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What is Prayer?

We have numerous definitions for prayer. Whatever the case may be, God requires us to be more devoted than at any other time in recent memory. We pray to know the Will of God. We pray to know how to carry out the will of God.

We also pray to surrender ourselves to the desires of the kingdom for us. There are several definitions of prayer. Some see it as petitioning, while others see it as communing with God, and so on.. Prayer is what the Church really needs at this point.

When God’s move begins, it begins with His children’s prayers. This intercession ensures that God’s work is carried out precisely and without interference from the forces of darkness. Why do we have to pray? This is because we can only gain insight and understanding into what God is going to do through prayer.

According to Colossians 2:3, “all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ,” and it is through prayer that these treasures are revealed to us.

THE HEART MATTERS

This is a photograph of possessive

James 4:3 (New International Version)

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

Any prayer prayed for the wrong reasons will be rendered ineffective. Prayer is a sacred duty that must be carried out with the purest of intentions. In the Church, selfishness is the slayer of prayer. It causes God to stifle the much-needed answer.

Prayer for the sake of one’s own selfish interests is a waste of time. According to Proverbs 21, God weighs a man’s heart. He weighs His saints’ hearts; He measures the quality of prayer by the quality of the heart rather than the quantity of words.

If a saint’s motives are not pure, he may say thousands of words before God and leave empty-handed; however, another saint may speak only a few words and leave with the Grace he seeks as a result of pure motives.

Proverbs 15:11: “Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord, How much more the hearts of men!”

We deceive ourselves when we believe God is unaware of the true reason for some of our petitions. God sees our hearts; He hears our thoughts as well as our words. Therefore, before we pray, we must examine our hearts and ensure that our motives are pure. In our prayer, there must be no trace of self or carnality.

FOR HIS GLORY

When we pray, whether in public or privately, the only thing that matters is that God receives the glory. In the place of prayer, His glory and will must be at the center of our desires. In the Kingdom, we are only rewarded for actions that bring glory to God.

HIS BATTLE-AXE

The pure saint must see himself as a battle-axe in the master’s hands, or as a pencil in the creator’s hands. When he prays or fasts, he must remember that it is God who is doing the work through him.

Conclusively, ministers, intercessors, and all members of the Body must keep this in mind. We must not allow the spirit of competition to infiltrate our organization. We must be wary of praying for the sake of showing off.

Student's Corner

Students’ Corner: The Time Factor

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Becoming an excellent student arguably requires certain resources which range from funds to enough textbooks, guides etc. One might not have access or full control of these things, but a resource that a student has full control over is ‘Time’.

You are in control of your time! No one else has control of it. Your lecturers might only have a portion of it, but you own your time.

The Time Factor is what every student must be able to use for his/her academic growth


Ecclesiastes 3 vs 1;
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (Ecclesiastes 3:1|KJV)


When the Bible said to, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”, it literally meant, “There’s a time for everything ”.



It never shortlisted it to a particular thing.


Students today develop problems when it comes to PRIORITIZING and meeting up with a set time especially time to read and give answers to waiting assignments.



Someone once made a joke, he said “Even if you give students a whole year for an assignment, you will definitely find many of them doing the assignments a night before submission ”.


I laughed when I heard this though it is painfully true.


The only time you find a lot of students reading is actually a day to exams or tests and this is sadly painful.


Then you see them blaming the teacher or lecturers for giving them low grades.



Throughout the semester or term, all you find them doing is anything but studying.


Having fun isn’t wrong but having it at the wrong time is wrong and dangerous to one’s academic growth.


Remember what Jesus said to Martha in Luke 10 vs 42?



He said, “But one thing is needful”.


In that text, Jesus didn’t mean to say cooking wasn’t necessary, all he meant to say was “At that moment, there was something more important than cooking”.


Having fun and being social is an essential part of every human’s life but when you prioritize it above the needful – your studies, you are wasting precious time – time you could invest in learning something new or gaining more knowledge about a particular course.



We all have our Achilles’ heel when it comes to studying. No one is perfect in all subjects; but the time you devote to gaining mastery of your least favourite subjects determine whether it becomes your strength or remains your downfall.

There exists a law of consistency which states that the way to gain mastery of a thing or course is to study and practice it repeatedly. Spend time daily studying your academic work.



Time lost is lost forever – it can never be gotten back. So what do you do with you time as a student?


A wise man once said, “Time, is an asset of equality. Everyone has 24hours, no one has 25 hours so use yours well”.


The key to a successful and fun-filled school session is total commitment and hard work. Read when the time to read comes, the fun can wait.

APPLICATION

1. Write down the list of courses you’re doing this session as well as the recommended texts for those topics

2. Apportion at least thirty minutes to studying each of those courses daily.

3. Be candid with yourself; the day must not pass without you completing the thirty minutes devoted to each subject.

4. Ensure you celebrate yourself for time spent by getting a good nap or challenging a friend to a quiz based on the studied course

5. Use your night time properly.

6. Overtime, increase the number of minutes spent on each course.

Thank you for your time here 😊. If you enjoyed this post, we request that you give us a like as well as a share 👍. More on students titbits comes soon.




Health and Lifestyle

Rejoicing in Grief

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Apart from the fact that depression eats its prey silently, it a way of subtly camouflaging itself as a seemingly peaceful state of mind, which is in reality, the exact opposite.



Romans 8:1 says ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’




Depression is not deep thinking, but meditating on the mistakes, ill-luck and unfortunate things that happened to one; not to spur one to positive response, but to bound such a one’s mind with the mind-set that he was born to fail.



Depression is a negative force. Like a magnet, it doesn’t come alone, it attracts negative results, output and circumstances to itself.



The way out?


Philippians 4:4

“Rejoice in the Lord Always. Again, I will say, Rejoice”


Finding a reason to appreciate God is a sure way to escape from the fangs of depression. Depression cannot dwell in the heart of a grateful soul.


Instead of regretting and feeling like a failure, give thanks to God in faith and hope that things will get better.



2 Samuel 12:15: “After Nathan returned to his home, the Lord made Bathsheba’s baby deathly ill.”


2 Samuel 12:16: “David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground.”


2 Samuel 12:17: “The leaders of the nation pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused.”


2 Samuel 12:18: Then on the seventh day the baby died. David’s advisers were afraid to tell him. “He was so broken up about the baby being sick,” they said. “What will he do to himself when we tell him the child is dead?”



David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and as a punishment, God struck the child of their cohabitation with a deadly sickness.



David wept, fasted and prayed for the healing of his child. He prayed that God would preserve the life of his child. Still, the child died.


Such an occurrence is capable of destabilising even the most hardened of hearts. David lost his precious baby to the sickness.



But my interest in this study isn’t that David lost his baby, but what David did after the loss.



2 Samuel 12:20 Then David got up from the ground, washed himself, put on lotions, and changed his clothes. Then he went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. After that, he returned to the palace and ate.


Instead of weeping and cursing God for a child that was gone, David worshipped God and put on the garments of devotion to the sovereignty of God.


Thus, we learn that we might not be able to control everything that happens in our lives, but we can always determine our response to that situation.

There are certain things that our prayer might not have been able to prevent, such as the casualties from the Covid, or the Lockdown, but we can decide that in the midst of all these, we will remain grateful saints.


David never went into prolonged depression despite the loss of his child. Thereafter, God gave him another child who became richest and one of the wisest Kings of Israel.


Beloved, don’t be dismayed, because God will surely give you double of what you lost.



Instead of regretting, rise up, believe those wonderful things He has promised you and hold unto them.





Give thanks, rejoice, sing songs of worship and change your atmosphere from one of mourning, to one of rejoicing.

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