My Simple Prayers

 Today, I hear God telling me: “You don’t pray much these days.”

 

I confess to God that I have slacken last week. “December, with no cell meetings cause me to slack.” God, please forgive me for giving excuses.

And so, my mind started to wander into the simple prayers “encounters” that triggered me and humbled me to draw nearer to God.

People size you up by how you pray:

#1. In Prayer Meetings

Whenever we are in a group prayer, people instinctively are drawn to those who are eloquent in prayers. They are the so call “prayer warriors”. Some people also take the opportunity to display their “spiritual” level of maturity by their prayers. That leave us (me included) with nothing to “show-case” and so if we can be quiet, or avoid being called to pray, we feel more at ease. This is the kind of prayer meetings that I loathe to attend. No wonder, most Wednesday evening prayer meeting often has low attendance.

Last year 2020, during the Alpha meeting I was appointed into the prayer group besides being the helper in one team. I suspected that I was appointed to be in the prayer group because, during one mock / trial-run Alpha zoom meeting, I shared that I often pray while driving alone. The Alpha ministry leader/trainer happened to be in my mock Alpha meeting. I may have sound boastful while sharing about prayer and that triggered him to get me to be involved in prayer for the Alpha sessions (12 sessions in all). There are 3 people in the Prayer Group. Since the other 2 people try to be very passive, I took the initiative and put up a prayer list (as requested by the Ministry Pastor). And, so with that, I became the prayer IC. And I had to update the prayer list weekly. Although, the 3 of us took turn to pray each week, somehow for the last 3 sessions, the ministry leader specifically called me to close each sessions with prayers. I remembered clearly during the 12^th (final) sessions on 22^nd October 2020, he specifically said: “I ask Mark Lim to close us with prayer, AGAIN!” to the giggles of several girls who were in the Alpha zoom sessions. He made it so obvious that he was using prayer to humble me. (“So you think you are so spiritual in prayer, right? Then pray for us, lah!). I must confess that I did not complete the prayer that final night. I actually broke down in tears near the end of my prayer and Karen, the administrator continued with a final sentence and closed the prayer for me. That week as the most stressful week for me as my wife broke her leg on 19^th October and I was no longer in a clear state of mind. [Bye-bye, no more Alpha sessions for me]

#2. In Leadership gathering

I remember the time when I was in the Precept Sunday Lunch Leadership gathering about 4 years ago. I was new to the Precept Ministry and the Elder who was the Advisor, was present. Seeing me as a newbie to the group, he started to talk to me (in a group), perhaps to size me out whether I was qualified to facilitate Bible Study Discussions. During the conversation, he would often quote Bible verses without mentioning the Scripture Passage or context to see if you follow the discussion. This is the kind of Christians’ sparring that are meant to indirectly show off or test others how knowledgeable someone are well Bible-versed. Then before the meal started, he called me to “say Grace” for the food. Instinctively, I knew in my heart that he was again sizing me up to hear how I prayed. I mean, in such a gathering, shouldn’t the top leader give thanks instead of a lowly new guy like me to do it, Jesus always take the lead to give thanks for the food, (see John 6:11) Since he displayed such well-trained in Bible verse, he should know that giving thanks to God for food is the duty of the top leader. [Even at home during meal times, it is my duty as head of the family to give thanks to God for the food, like Jesus, not any of my daughters].

#3. In Cell gathering

Many years back in my previous cell meeting, we often separated into men’s and ladies’ for prayers during the cell gathering. Once, during such a prayer meeting, the floor was opened for anyone to pray. After a long wait, no one wanted to verbally pray out loud and so, I took the initiative to pray for the men by names in the group. It was a long but simple prayer without any eloquence or drama. I remembered clearly after my prayer, one member smiled and said to the group that asking God for needs was very “childish” and we should thank God instead of asking for needs and helps. Then he prayed a Thanksgiving prayer (as if to teach me how to pray). All this while, I kept quiet and accepted the fact that I was childish (or child-like) when it comes to prayer.

God don’t size you up by how you pray

I often wonder how God would see me when He hears me praying to Him. Does He see me asking for needs and helps, very childish and is bothering Him?

Howard Hendricks, Professor of Dallas Theological Seminary shared a time when he was attending a Wednesday night Bible Study and Prayer Meeting:

 

A man in our church came to Christ and decided to show up for a prayer meeting and Bible Study on Wednesday night. We had the study and then we broke into groups for prayer.

“Hey, Howie. Where are we going?” he asked me as we headed down the hall.

“We’re going down here to pray,” I said.

“Well, then I’ve got a problem.”

“What’s your problem?”

“I can’t pray,” he admitted. “I mean, I can’t say it the way you guys say it.”

I said, “Friend, that’s no problem. Thank God for that.”

So, we began praying. I knew he wanted to participate, but he was a little hesitant. Finally, I reached over and prompted him to go ahead. I’d give anything to have a recording of what happened next.

He said, “Lord, this is Jim. I’m the one that met You last Thursday remember?” (I thought he was going to give God his zip code.) “I’m sorry I can’t say it the way the rest of these guys say it, but I really love You. Honestly, I do. And hopefully, after I know You awhile, I’ll be able to say it a lot better. Thanks a lot. I’ll see you later.”

You know what that man did? He turned on a prayer meeting. You see, the rest of us are saying prayers. As usual, we were reviewing our theology, taking our tour of the mission field, scrapping the Milky Way. This guy was praying – just talking to God. Without realizing it, he was way ahead of the rest of us because he was honest before his heavenly Father. The only thing that ever moves Him is our heart. - Howard Hendricks, Living By the Book; 2007; page 101

Yes, people listen to our prayer and size us where we are spiritually. (I can almost imagine how that Elder grade me during the Precept Lunch meeting if I pray like this man which Dr Hendricks talk about). But God sees our heart. Every time I draw near to God in prayer, I am reminded of Jesus’ parable on prayer in Luke 18:9-14

^{Luke 18:9} He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

So, how’s your prayer? A Pharisee’s kind of prayer or the tax collector’s kind of prayer – simple, short and helpless plea to God?

Agape

How God answers my prayer!

 The words on the signboard says it all. It just answered what I have been praying for all night!

I had another stressful week!

To seek release, I just felt an impulse pushing me to get out of the house after clearing all the dishes and dinner. Where that impulse come from? I don’t know.

This prompted me to go for the night prayer walk around the estate. The nostalgic feelings of those days when I spend quite a good time at night praying and walking. Then came COVID-19 and this halted for more than a year.

The weather was hot for the 2 past nights. But that does not deter me. My mind was filled with sadness as I think of our bunny who was not feeling well after her surgery for her fractured left hind leg. There were gas in her stomach and she totally has no appetite for 2 days. She looked so weak and was suffering badly. And so I spend a good fair bit of time praying for her recovery and also for my family. We need God’s healing, assurance and protection for any fatality.

When praying, the mind can be tricky at times and prefer to think negatively, especially when our dependent is now fully on God. Yes, I was asking myself what can be the worst situation. I was thinking of death. Would such a thing happened to her? I told God I will submit to His Will and humbly accept what He had install.

Just as I was thinking of this, I saw this signboard ahead of me – “No Time To Die”. It came as a strong rebuke to my prayer. I instantly felt God was chastising me over my prayer. And I lacking in faith in HIM? He is a loving God, “Ask, and it shall be given unto you!” There is no time to think about dying. Instead, I should be focusing on being alive. Well and strong! That is then I knew that my prayer for bunny is granted. She will be well, gain her appetite and alive and agile.

As I reached home, I saw her beginning to eat well.

Today, she is not only full of appetite, she is running around, even with her injury.

Sometime, God can answer us in mysterious ways. He speaks, but at this moment, He led my eyes to see what He want to tell me – signboard like this can be useful tool for Him too!

Now, I learn another way how God can speak to me - surrounding scene and His prompting.

Agape

Place of Solitude & Solace - Pray

What a tough week it has been. :(

A heavy burden that I am bearing.

Last Sunday, I accidentally knocked on my home bunny and fractured her left hind leg. Feeling very sad this whole week, Will tell you about how bunny is coping in my future post

Going to my place of solitude, to spend time with my Heavenly Father, to pour out my grief and to hear from Him. I have come regularly to this quiet place to pray, to reflect and to hear the voice of my Father. It is the place where I encounter HIM.

Jesus’s place of Solitude

This is the park just across my house, a quiet and shady park about 400m in circumference planted with tall trees, mango trees and coconut trees. Every time I walked up the steps of this Sea Shell Park, I would be reminded of Jesus going up to the Garden of Gethsemane, a garden planted with olive at Mount Olive in Jerusalem and there He spent quiet moment in prayer. What was Jesus’ prayer like? How did the Father speak to Him during those time of solitude and prayer? As busy as the Lord was, He has always put solitude and prayer as priority. He prayed early in the morning before dawn (Mk 1:35), he prayed after a busy day of teaching and feeding the 5000 (Mk 6:46) and most of all, he prayed the whole night while others were sleeping before his crucifixion.

 

What I encounter through Prayer

As for me, many a time when I pour out my emotion of sadness and anxiety onto Him, I am assured that He cares for me (1Pet 5:7). Also, I like to come up to this park to pray as the place is shady and windy. With the wind come also the peace of God flowing towards me.

There are times when I heard God telling me to wait as I prayed for a cell member who was suffering from cancer. To hear Him say WAIT, I remember Psa 27:14 “Wait for the LORD, be strong and let your heart take courage. Yeah, wait for the LORD” To wait means to keep praying. Then came the good news from that cell member who told us about the miracle healing!

There was a frightening kind of answer I got from God some years ago while praying for someone who is suffering from cancer. A cell-member was asking for prayer for his son-in-law. In one instance, as I was praying for this sick brother-in-Christ, I heard God telling me that he will die. It was frightening to hear such an answer in prayer. I also felt God wanting me to stop praying for him. After a year or so, he indeed past away into glory land.

 

What Prayer mean to me

Prayer is not so much about I wanting my way but willing to follow God’s way. So, when I start praying, I will always pause in the midst of my prayer and try to hear what the Holy Spirit is telling me how I should pray. I believe this is what the Bible calls – “Pray in the Spirit”. To pray in the Spirit then is to pray what the Holy Spirit want me to pray. What if we can’t hear what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us as we pray? Yes, sometime God remains silent. He usually does as He want our companionship. Then keep praying as what comes to your mind. God delight in hearing us pray and so by keeping silent, we continue to pray until He speaks. We need to pray, pause & hear, pray, pause & hear … It takes patient (Love, Joy, Peace, PATIENT, ….) even in prayer. This is best done in solitude (alone, with God) and not in group prayer. This is also where I sharpen my spiritual ears to hear from God.

 

 

And so, as I leave the Sea Shell Park, I always sense an unspoken shalom peace flowing within me. A tough week of burden can also be make light.

^{Matt 11:28} Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

Are you still bearing your heavy burden? Cast them all to God in prayer

Agape & Shalom Peace

Prayer that touches God

Emotion is a powerful tool … when tears flow, my compassion is being stirred. That was how I felt when I heard a visitor who came to join us in cell group fellowship last Friday.

She has an autism son who is now 28 years old. She shared of her struggles and rejection by people because of her son all these years. Tears rolled as she shared her ordeal. I believe this is her cross that the LORD has given to her to carry. Once, her son was sick so badly that he went into the Intensive Care Unit. She talked about the prayer she made when her son was lying there. “Jesus was never sick, never had flu. As Jesus was, so are you.” And for that, she claim God’s healing. True enough, the doctor called her that night that her son can be out of ICU. From her many sharing, I knew that most of them are not theologically right. For example, she said that she lay hand on her husband’s car that it will never meet an accident and no parking summon will be on the car.

That night, as I walked out of the cell meeting, I asked the LORD two questions: (1) “LORD, are we to be like you in all aspect of life?” Then within me I feel that He is saying, “No.”  Jesus is single, I am married and that is OK. Jesus is circumcised, I am not. And that is OK. Jesus is divine, I am human. And it is OK.

OK, if we understand the Bible wrongly, then my second Question is: “When we pray wrongly (because we understand the Bible wrongly), do we still get our prayer granted?”  Again, I heard Him said, “Yes!” A deeply hurt, weeping prayer always touches MY heart! (not the words of the prayer).

Then I began to understand. I believe God looks more at the pain in our hearts and the tears in our eyes than the words in our mouth when we pray, even if our prayers are theologically wrong.

As I ponder over this, 2 persons in the Bible came to mind:

Hannah was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly. (1Sam 1:10) Her tears moved God to act and granted her a miracle child – Prophet Samuel.

King Hezekiah was at a point of death that he wept before the LORD. Even the prophet Isaiah told him to prepare for his death.

2King 20:3 “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

2King 22:19 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.

A compassionate and humble heart is more pleasing to the LORD than a good Bible knowledge. Beware: A good theological knowledge can be a stumbling block to drawing close to God. Also, it can swell the head but not humble the heart.

What then does God requires of me, just an ordinary man, I mused. This I believe is what God wants of me:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.  (Micah 6:8)

And when I act justly, love mercy, walk humbly (and not sacrifice Micah 6:6,7)); then I know God is with me in everything I do or ask.

Agape

Study in SBC

I really need to seek God's direction whether I should go ahead and apply for the MABS at SBC.

After seeing the application form, I realized that I need to seek approval from my wife and employer. These are the two most difficult criteria for me. Also, I need to get my employer to assess my character. This really put me off.

Today, as I spend time in devotion and reading on Col 4:2, I am somehow led to be more cautious in making decision. Rather, I need to be Prayerful, be Watchful and be Thankful in all situations.

Ok. I will pray about this for 40 days and 40 days whether to pursue my study on MABS in SBC. If the fire is quenched or re-kindled as each passing day, then I will know.

Today is the first day and night praying for this decision. :)

When stressed - PRAY!!

Saturday morning 7 March 7:45am
Blood flew out of my right forefinger. It was painful.

I knew then that I was having tremendous stress for the last 2 weeks because of work. I usually could not tell that I was stressful until 3 things happened. Or at least 2 things happened.

One is that when I start getting ulcers. Also, I would be very absent-minded and forgetful. Third, when my thoughts drift away while doing things.

That’s when it happened. I was cutting the bread that morning but my mind was still thinking of the problems at work. In that flick of a moment, I accidently cut my right forefinger. Worst, I had sharpened the knife before cutting the bread. You know how soft bread is. So I needed a very sharp knife to cut it without exerting a lot of pressure.

Then the week before, I misplaced my ezlink card. My wife has changed for me to a new card. Though I seldom use it, I think it is a good idea to have one. I remember clearly I was reading it and decided to put it in my wallet. But it was not in there. I can’t remember what happened after reading it. My mind was totally blank. I can’t even recall what I did to it.

Fortunately, I did not have any ulcers.

Saturday morning 7 March 10:15am
I received a call from my boss while I was at my office. Good news!!! One of the very difficult projects is now working. On Friday night, the engineers finally got some workable results. I am the designer and am very stressed by it. But Friday night was prayer night in Bethany PC so I quietly left early.

****

A few days ago, whether by God intervention or not, I managed to get the 21.75GHz oscillators working. I still do not how it happened. All I know is that I prayed almost every minute while working on this. Then I decided to write in my blog about this (2nd March, Monday night).

Spend the Tuesday night praying.

On Wednesday morning, I decided to do exactly what I done before, and just pray. Amazingly it worked. Then I tried to do the same for another unit, but it didn’t work.

Spend the Wednesday night praying.

On Thursday morning, again decided to do the same thing the day before. Now it worked, but with a bit of glitch. After much fine tuning, the result's more acceptable.


I still have a lot of other difficult works to tackle. Must PRAY!!

Hello God

A peom on Prayer:

Hello God, I called tonight

To talk a little while ...

I need a friend who'll listen

To my anxiety and trial.

You see, I can't quite make it

Through a day just on my own;

I need your love to guide me,

So I'll never feel alone.

I want to ask you please to keep,

My family safe and sound;

Come and fill their lives with confidence,

For whatever fate they're bound.

Give me faith, dear God, to face,

Each hour throughout the day;

And not to worry over things,

I can't change in any way.

I thank you God, for being home,

And listening to my call;

For giving me such good advice

When I stumble and fall.

Your number, God, is the only one

That answers every time;

I never get a busy signal,

And never had to pay a dime.

So thank you, God, for listening

To my troubles and my sorrow;

Good night, God. I love You, too,

And I'll call again tomorrow!

~ Author Unknown ~

God is Gracious in Time of Need

There were some technical problems in the product that my company sold to China. For the past week, we were trying to resolve it. Failure to do so would gravely affect the company’s business. Time was running out. We had to deliver by Monday 3 Nov. The engineer who was working on this was facing some problem and I needed to work with him to resolve it. The previous designer has left the company and the design was not properly done. I came to know about this only after the problem was feedback to us by the Chinese.

This morning, after worship, I went to my office to work on the product. Throughout the morning, I was praying for divine help. Num 6:24-26 kept going through my mind:

"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace." '

At this moment when time is not on my side, I am asking God to by on my side. Negative thought also came to mind. If I could not get 1 unit to work, I would probably have to work through the night.

We tried many things, changes and addition of components. Throughout the work, I was praying continually asking for wisdom. Then something came to mind. Maybe I need some high Quality capacitors. Sometimes, this method works, sometime it doesn’t. I have done it before. This is my best hope. As the engineer made the changes, I was still praying silently. When we measured the performance, there was a vast improvement; we were almost meeting our requirement!

As I drove back to church at about 12:30pm, my heart kept repeating:

The LORD is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him (Nahum 1:7)

Mark Lim

Friday Prayer Meeting

This is the first time Sister Siew Poh joined our first Friday of the month prayer meeting. It is nice to hear her talk about her volunteering work at Singapore Anti-Narcotite Association (SANA) and some of her health problem. In prayer meeting, we get to know more of the people in our group and so understand each other better. But usually, the turn out is very low. Those who come are the one who see the need to give and just be part of the group. Everyone is given the opportunity to speak and so it is good to hear from one another. We may not spend much time in prayer but more in knowing the lives of others.

Which bring me to my point of writing this blog. As christians we need to talk about our life, and how God is working in our lives, or sometime, fail to see how God is working in our lives. Either way is good, the knowledge of God working in our lives help us to experience His presence and join Him in whatever He calls or guides. Also, the failure to see how God is working in my lives, will help me to be sensitive to Him and learn to sense His presence. The worse is to be apathy to Him.

As a body of Christ, I am trying to inculate this aspect of Christian living - sharing with one another how we can see our lives in God's perspective - by email on SHARE-A-THOUGHT, DEVOTION, REFLECTION, and reading articles. Hopefully, others will learn to draw near to God through all these and not feel that I am intruding into their spaces.

I hope Sister Siew Poh will continue to share her lives with others which can encourage others to shares their also.


Mark Lim
8 Sept 2008