You don't have, because you don't ask for it

I really liked this sermon by pastor Charlotte Gambill from Life Church UK about why we need prayer in our lives. The Bible teaches us to pray and James 4:2 says: "You do not have because you do not ask God." Still, I have a tendency to get lazy in my prayer life. It's so easy to put on "the independent woman role" and act like I got life covered, like I don't need God. Me acting like I don't need God is as silly as when a toddler thinks that she doesn't need her parents' help in life.

God is always present and cares for me deeply so why don't I take the time to sit down and get more intentional in my prayer life? The answer is the same as to why I don't do more strength training workouts. Prayer and workouts require time and will never happen unless I make them a high priority in my life. I'm working on becoming more consistent in my prayer life at the moment because I have seen the difference between living my life without prayer and with prayer. I definitely prefer the second version of life. There is so much unnecessary pain and complications that I could save myself from if I just took the time to seek God's counsel before making my decisions.

Present Over Perfect

Shauna Niequist has written a new book called "Present Over Perfect:Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living". Shauna has also created a Five-Session-Video-Study based on the book. "Present Over Perfect" is a book about Shauna's own journey from living a very busy life filled with too much of everything to her deciding to build a new way of life from the inside out. Shauna decided to choose a new way to live that would include enough time for rest, deep connections with others and time for prayer. I think most of us can relate to Shauna's story, it's so easy to end up striving to do everything in life perfectly and become exhausted as a result of that.

Life after death

There are many different testimonies out there from people from different countries all over the world who have had near death experiences. What's really cool today is that we all have a chance to hear them thanks to the internet. Some of these people share stories about being surrounded by complete peace, love and light during the minutes they were dead, a place that they believe was heaven. Other people share stories that are much more scary. They talk about ending up in a place that was completely dark, cold and where they felt a strong presence of evil. Some people talk about hearing voices and loud screams in this place. They believe that this place must have been hell.

Ian McCormack is an Australian who was a surfer and an atheist back in 1982 when he had his near death experience. He was stung by five Box jellyfish while diving and was dead for many minutes before he came back to life. Ian's story is quite interesting because while he was dead he ended up in a place that he believes was hell, then he was pulled into heaven, and later he came back to life again.

Ian McCormack was an atheist back in 1982 when he had his near death experience but his mother was a Christian. As Ian was laying in the ambulance dying he remembered the Lord's prayer that his mother had taught him and started praying the prayer and crying out to God. You can hear Ian share his story in this video.

Hearing God's Voice

Pastor Holly Wagner from Oasis Church in Los Angeles gives a sermon about hearing God's voice. It's easy to get so busy in life that we never stop and take a moment to just be still. If we want to hear God's voice we have to practice being still. We might need to do some preparation beforehand so that there will be a higher likelihood that we will hear from God. A morning person can set aside a time to hear from God in the morning while an evening person will be better off taking time for stillness at the end of the day. Find what works for you personally.


When we are still and worship God, maybe through singing and listening to some worship music or by praying to God, we have put ourselves in a position where if God speaks to us we will hear him. God will often speak to us when we read his word in the Bible. Sometimes you can have an experience when a sentence in the Bible just "pops" out of the page and speaks straight to the situation you currently struggle with. Other times you might be listening to a song, singing and worshiping God when you suddenly know the answer to a question that you have been thinking about for a while. God doesn't want us to wander through life being confused and hopeless. God has an answer to all of our questions but sometimes we won't hear His voice simply because we don't prioritize stillness, time of prayer or spending time reading his word.

Why and how do I Pray?

Prayer is a central part of being a Christian, it's how we talk to God. God wants each one of us to be in a close relationship with him because he loves us. I personally find it hard to take the time to pray sometimes. If I get really busy it's easy to forget about prayer. Other times I feel bad for asking God to give me something, sometimes I feel like I should be strong enough to not need his help, but God will never be disappointed in us for asking something from him, whether it's something big or small.


This week there is a lot to pray for, we pray for God to comfort those who are mourning the loss of loved ones in Paris. I also have a friend who is very sick that I will be praying for this week. Except for praying for our personal stuff it's also good to pray for God to intervene in places where there is suffering in the world. We can pray for the protection of staff and children in the orphanage that we support or for a non-profit in our city. It's good to have different categories to pray for on different days so that we can cover a lot of things.

How do you pray to God?

In this video comedian Michael Jr. is joking about how you should pray to God. He has a point, many of us still think that praying to God has to be done in a certain way and that it needs to be very ritualistic. The truth is that praying to God is nothing more strange than just talking to him. You can talk to God just like you talk to a person. Try asking God a question and then be quiet for awhile, wait and see what will enter your mind, eventually God will give you an answer.

God longs to have a personal relationship with each one of us and prayer doesn't have to be any more complicated than just having a conversation with him. As every father longs to spend time with his children our father in heaven also longs to spend time with us one on one. The good thing is that talking to God doesn't require Skype or a smartphone, you can talk to God wherever you are and at any time during the day. God is always with you.