thirst no more........

retreat was good. i learned a lot about prayer and did some re-examining of my prayer life. It's really interesting when you read the Bible and notice how prayers in psalm were written. Some of them are so God centered and they acknowledge all these qualities of God. The author wrote in such a way that leaves his reader in awe because in his writing he displays such a strong understanding of who God is. I think it's the same with worship songs, the reason why the words can speak to our hearts so well sometimes. Song writers express their understanding of God in the lyrics and when we sing it we feel that much closer to God because we sort of grasp a deeper understanding of God's majesty. And I also like the practice of listening prayer. So it's been said that praying is communication with God. That means that we speak to God and God speaks to us right? I think the listening to God aspect of prayer is often forgotten. Sometimes our minds are so cluttered with thoughts of everything BUT stillness. Listening is hard to come by sometimes, especially when it's with God.

so someone asked me a really interesting question. they asked me if asking to see God was the same as testing God because non-christians see it as testing God. the only conclusion I could come up with is that God is always present and we're the ones that miss out on seeing him. When we ask God to show himself to us, we're in a sense asking him to open our eyes and allow us to be aware of his presense when our view is too clouded with other things. I dunoo..what do you think? Is asking to see God testing him?

so ive realize that God answers my prayers in progression. most things that i pray earnestly about are never a yes, no or maybe. there's always a series of events that sort of lead up to the big shabam answer. God's concept of time is definitely unlike ours. His idea of patience is never one I'm willing to be happy with...he's got eternity. but anyhow, although these answers are always in a series of events, I think he does that so that I'll always have reason to hope that he's working. He's answering the prayer, just not in a way that I can imagine...slowly but surely. It's funny, although the answers can be both frustrating and disappointing sometimes, I know that's not the conclusion of the answered prayer so I always have some hope that things just sorta work out in a settling manner and they always do.

"be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
romans 12:12