Praying My Problems Away - Glorious Freedom! - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-day challenge)

What a busy day today! The whole day at work was filled with emails, quotes, orders, calls, payments, paperwork, online stuff, twitter, facebook, people, customer care, prices, updates, issues, quickly do that, help me with this, pick up that phone, send this email, check up on this payment, delete this or that, disable that product, etc... And it was good! I mean, I like it being busy! It always keep the blood pumping, you don't have time to get bored, you even find fun things to do or talk about! It may sound crazy, but among the busy-ness you may have some nice conversations, have a laugh, do some helping of one another, etc. Of course, you guessed it right, this can happen mainly in a small-size company, where everyone needs to know how to do everything! :)

But after work and during work, whenever you're alone or when you're exposed, there's this particular PROBLEM which is obvious to everyone else around you but not to you! I'm not talking about necessarily a BIG problem, a HUGE issue, or a HUMONGOUS thing - there's something particular about you, a need or a problem, an issue, that just bothers you or others! You try to think about it from this angle or that angle, try to solve it, ask for advice and people are kind and help you out of the goodness of their heart, and... still, the problem remains. Believe me - we will ALWAYS have problems and be problems: human beings never solve problems entirely; rather, when one problem is "seemingly solved", other 10 come up right away! This brings me to this,

One Meaningful Thing I Did Today - Praying My Problems Away: Glorious Freedom!

This post is not about "self-help" or "how to solve all the problems"; it's not about solutions in relationships or how to make a lot of money ;) - no, it's just my experience today with this particular problem that was bothering me. You can try your best to guess it - it doesn't matter what the problem / the need was; what matters is what happened (at least today). You know, you can even ask older ones with more maturity and experience, even some with professional qualifications, to help you with your problem. And it may get solved temporarily - but more than other 10 problems will come up! You meet one need and you're happy - but 10 more needs come up!

Today I discovered - or I should say, re-discovered - the key to freedom from problems: PRAYER! Yes, we need to pray to the Lord - especially pray over His word, who has the power to "discern between spirit and the soul"(Heb. 4:12) - and especially pray with a companion! We need companions, we need saints that we run to when we are happy or not so happy - just to open up, fellowship, and especially to pray! The best companion you can have is one who leads you to pray with him! Why do we try to do so much and really accomplish so little, when we can accomplish much more through our prayer than through our working!?! [adaptation from Watchman Nee] The best way to deal with the problems or to try to figure out how to meet the need is to pray.

I had this privilege both at lunch time(remember? Redeeming the lunch break time...) and after the prayer meeting (remember? The most meaningful thing on a Tuesday Night is the prayer meeting!) to pray with a companion and get mingled with the Triune God! Don't pray "for the problem" - focus mainly on your spirit which is mingled with the divine Spirit! Pray over the Word of God! Pray for God's economy to be accomplished! Pray for God's purpose to be fulfilled! Pray for the building up of His Body! Even pray for other saints, other people, the young ones, the church life, the Lord's work, the Lord's recovery! When you pray for God's interest, God's purpose - just like Daniel prayed 3 times a day towards God's city & God's house - God will meet His need and He will also take care of your need!

When you pray with a companion and open up, there's a RELEASE within! The problems will never go away and the need will always be there - but the burden of it, the weight of it, can crush you down and bring you to desperation and disappointment! The best way to deal with it is to ENJOY THE LORD with your companion, praying over the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit(Eph. 6:17)! This Word of God will kill the enemy in the air and the enemy in you, and you will be released from Satan's usurpation! WHAT A RELEASE the Savior gave me - Christ indeed has set me free! What a freedom, to "pray your problems away" with a companion!

Remember: before you get the answer, you get the Answer; before you get the things you asked for - you get the One! Before you get the object - you get the Person! Before you get the answer, you get the Lord! Problems are here to help you turn to the Lord and enjoy Him - He is the solution, He is the One who can release you, and He can solve your problems by giving you more of Him!(enjoy this wonderful song online) .... I just love Him so much more right now! Lord, I cast all my anxieties on You - I give them, I commit them, I throw them once for all! Lord, I throw my whole life with all its cares on You - because it matters to You concerning me(1 Pet. 5:7)!!!

Making a 3-months Commitment to Read the NT - one meaningful thing I did today (30 days challenge)

Wow, it's not easy to keep up with this, especially when the home meetings are so sweet! Tonight we enjoyed the Lord so much - just appreciating how much God loves us! God fell in love with man - for only God's love can make man just the same as He is in life and nature! ... What made You, Lord, to die for me... - I was Your enemy! Lord now I love You more and more each day - Lord I love You more this very day!

Believe me, the greatest joy on earth is that on Friday night you get together with the saints of all ages, races, colours, cultures, and backgrounds... and just enjoy the Lord! This is THE BEST thing you can do! Of course, on the way home you see Satan's usurping the humanity created to contain God - especially young ones being usurped and spoiled by Satan.... but there's One in us who is the most lovely One - and in the whole universe we just love Him! O, Lord.... nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus! But coming back to the 30-day challenge for today, here's

One Meaningful Thing I Did Today - 

Making a 3-month Commitment to Read the New Testament!

Being raised up in a Christian family - with seeking parents who infused in me a desire to read God's word and a love for the Bible, I have to admit that the older you get, even though you know the importance of it, the reading of the Bible tends to be put aside again and again. I long for this, to have a schedule of reading the Bible consistently, consecutively, and even with a companion that would check on me and encourage me. Recently even more, after listening to some messages from the Team Reunion (saints from Christian Students on Campus), I was convicted, exposed, and enlightened + encouraged at the same time: I can do it!

Since I'm online a lot, even though it's better to read the Bible as THE BOOK, the physical book, sometimes it helps to be reminded online / by email about it! So these days I found these two great tools that help us with reading the Bible according to a schedule, in a consecutive way, and even in a consistent way:

• ReadHisWord.com - a website in "beta", with free registration, which helps you create your own schedule according to the time period you want to allocate to a certain reading. If you want to read the New Testament in 30 days / 90 days or any number of days, there's a filter there and a result that shows you what chapters you need to read every day! There's a calendar, a journal, and even alerts by email. Very simple, but this tool helps you set aside some time - in a scheduled way - to go through the Bible!
• LetTheWord.com - a website in development, recommended especially to the students - you can login with your Facebook account and form a group with someone(either by inviting them, adding them, suggesting it to them, giving them the key, etc). The website is simple - you just post your reading there - your smiling face (your facebook profile picture, unless you change it) shows up there on the board as having read that chapter. What's nice about it is that, according to the burden of the website, this is for READING the WORD with COMPANIONS! So you need to grab one or two companions and remind one another about it! I wish there would be more integration with facebook, as in allowing this api to post on facebook your reading, etc.

But coming back to this Meaningful Thing I Did Today - the Lord has been burning in me to start this, to get on a regular schedule and read the Bible! I began a schedule so many times... and I gave up either weeks or a few months later! But as I did this, I prayed, Lord, have Your Way! Be the initiator! You need me to do this and I also need to do this! - and there was a desperation growing in me... 

So here I am, I found a dear brother to be my companion, we formed a group on the LetTheWord, and now we're going on little by little! Even though I promised myself NOT to start with big bites, I want to go ahead with a 90day reading of the entire New Testament. Lord, what about my time right before I go to sleep?!? I want to learn to redeem my time - and also to fall asleep in a nicer / more positive / more constructive way than browsing, watching, or other things! Amen to the Word of God! Remember: 

Christians love to read the Bible! As loving seekers of the Lord, we will read the Bible every day until we will meet the Author of the Bible in person - face to face!