How to Pray: Spending One Hour in Prayer

When it comes to prayer, it is true that, 

1. Only Christ through the Holy Spirit can teach us how to pray (what to say, when to say it and how to say it) and therefore there may be no reason for me to write this post.

2. There's already a good example of how we ought to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 and tweeting and posting it here and there on the webosphere would help guys to somehow get it on how prayer works and how it should be done, and,
3. I am not a prayer guru, and there's therefore no need to try to do stuff I'm also trying to learn.

That said, it is also a good thing to remind us of the truth in the following two statements. That,

1. Very few of us actually pray. Why? Because it terrifies us. We need someone to encourage us that prayer isn't that complicated, and,
2. Some of us need convincing that someone can actually sit before God and they'd be chatting for an hour or two; and that prayer is not boring at all.

I think this is necessary. I think it's necessary to encourage people to pray by simplifying the whole process. Making it adaptable.
You get it? Good. If you get it, know that this is why I'm writing this post.

And I'll go straight to the point;

Prayer, because it is communication involving a Holy God and an unholy man justified through faith, it has some few requirements before we engage in it. 

They are:
1. We need to get an isolated or secluded place with minimal interference for our dedicated times of prayer. We should remove obstructions (phones, TV, friends, kids, gadgets etc)
2. We need, at such moments (and actually always), to search our hearts and be attentive to hear from God.
3. We need to be conscious of what we are saying before God in order not to blabber empty and meaningless words. (Unless the Holy Spirit has blessed us, in such moments, with tongues and we're now flowing in that beautiful language, we should remain conscious that it is God we are talking to, and sensible words are required.)
4. We need to come to the place of prayer with a predetermined mind: I want to spend at least one hour or two with God today. (It isn't a bad thing if we use a stop watch for this. It will ensure we are uninterrupted and keen with what we are doing.)

So, this morning, as I overheard Benny Hinn (please, for now, put aside all the dumb things you believe about him because he had a good point here) teach on how prayer is more important than power, it led me to thinking deeply on how we as Christians should not underestimate the effectiveness of prayer.

As the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) puts it so well, prayer helps us in various ways. Prayer,

1. Connects us with God. We connect with Him through praising Him and inviting Him yo take control of our lives.
2. Drives out demons, paralyses the work of the devil and helps us move away from temptation.
3. Is an avenue for miracles and all kinds of provision from God.
4. Connects us with fellow Christians through sincere love.

So, if you think you're too busy for prayer or that it is unnecessary yet you're a Christian, you're losing it and you may want to reconsider your stand.

After saying all that stuff up there, here's a simple 10 step model on how to spend our time with God. You will find below it a summarised infographic that you may download as a photo or as a document.

Note: I'm only giving this as a model, not a rule, thus you may be required to change time allocated for every part of this model as the Spirit will allow you every other time when you come to pray...
This model was acquired from my Church so it's originally not mine...

1. Praise God for all He has done, who He is, what He is doing and what He's going to do. (Psalms 63:3-4). This will take around 5 minutes.

2. Wait on God in prayer. Be silent and allow Him to speak to your heart. (Psalms 46:10). This will take around 5 minutes.

3. Confess & repent of your sins. (Psalms 139:23). This should take around 3 minutes.

4. Submit to Jesus all that you are: your thoughts, plans, strengths and desires (James 4:7). This may take around 2 minutes.

5. Read the Word (Psalms 119:105). This can take upto 15 minutes.

6. Pray to be a doer of God's Word. (James 1:22). This can take around 5 minutes.

7. Meditate on what you read for about 5 minutes (Joshua 1:9).

8. Petition (pray for yourself and your needs) (Matthew 7:7). This can take around 5 minutes.

9. Intercession (pray for other people around you and their needs) for about 10 minutes. (1 Tim 2:1-2, Psalms 122:6).

10. Thanksgiving (glorify God for all He is and for answered prayer) (1 Thesa 5:18, 1 John 5:14). This may take around 5 minutes.

I hope the above prayer model will encourage you to pray more. Share it with a friend.

Here are the two downloads that you may print and keep a copy for personal or group use:

1. How to Pray: Spending One Hour in Prayer (Word document - 35kb)
2. How to Pray: Spending One Hour in Prayer (JPEG image - 76kb).

God bless.

Bonface Morris.

The One

#TheOne

She tripped and fell down. A disgusting fall it was. So disgusting that the ground got hurt. It should have; how could such beauty meet the ground with a thud and it pretends not to feel anything: even angry, or glad, or sweaty, or plummy? How?

Her handbag and all that was in it fled from her arm and filled the whole ground in front of her. Her hair brush, her lip gloss, her clutch bag, her book (The Four Loves by C S Lewis), her phone (which unceremoniously got split into three pieces - back cover, the body and the battery), her handkerchief (now embodying onto itself the color of earth), her earphones (which loosed themselves carelessly in front of her - the ear pads and front cases separating themselves from the main frame... plentifully neglecting each other) all scattered themselves before her mud-splashed face.

Her pen seemed to be the only thing that remained sane in its entirety: all naive, refusing to be dirtied by the gloom on the ground and seeming to smile and glitter in the fullness of day.

Yes, there they were right before her - all her items lay there with their helpless mistress - being grasped in her bewilderment and within a worm's eye view. Waiting to be redeemed. It was as if the ground on which she now lay was a masterpiece scrapbook, a work of art, a painting by a glorious artist - all dirty and beautiful at the same time.

She winced. And groaned. And gasped. And cried. A little. And spit out grains of sand from her mouth. She pulled off with her right hand the black scarf that clenched so tightly on her neck, recklessly begging to strangle her to an ultimate feeble weakness. She pulled it and wiped her face with it. Her hair too was a mess: it seems the mud was waiting for her to embrace it; it had wholesomely embalmed the left side of her head.

"I ain't gonna make it. [Liquid pause.] I ain't gonna make it to that meeting", she smirked.

She was going to miss out on an opportunity. Irredeemable it seemed. *Phew!!* That day was going to be indelible. Utterly indelible. She was going to play it over and over again in her mind like a song. And dear to her as it was, or should have been, she was never going to forget just what was happening to her.

******************
As she groped to start collecting her paraphernalia, she felt a tiny pain in her back. But she clenched closely onto her stuff, picking it up one by one. Hand on her left knee, she tried to lift her painful self up...

Then something happened.

She felt someone watching her. A deep sense of another person's eyes dwelling on her painful self haunted her. She looked up. She looked up bringing her eyes steadily to the object in her presence.

"Eeeeh, miss, can I, with your permission, help you up!? "
.
.
Remember that day she fell in love with television, 9pm news? That day she heard this dude, eeh Wilson, debut on the 9pm news? (Damn dude made her raise her eyebrows and smile by calling Dorah, "Dolah"). Remember how she felt her tummy was full yet she had been from the fridge just a few minutes back and had cussed all she could after finding it empty? Remember how she forgot all that food nonsense until 10.30-ish when the news were finished and she (o what a glorious day) even read the TV Station contact details after the news? Remember that? Remember how her mom thatchered her up: "Kwani umeanza kuona news lini, wewe?" and she had cared less because this guy was her ultimate TV darling?

Yes honeybunch, that's how she felt when those words, "Eeeeh, miss, can I, with your permission, help you up!?" came rushing to her ears.
 

It was as if the ground on which she lay had become an ocean... That she would want to swim and float on it all day long. It was as if the mud on her left side was a puddle and she was five again, and she wanted to play and dance until she was hungry and was running to her mom for food. It was as if the tiny dust particles in her mouth were dancing - dancing in ultimate mockery of this blissful moment. It was as if her eyes were bound, and her scarf was wool, and her stuff was drooling...

"Uuum, fine. I'm fine...! I'm doing just fine," she replied

"But, miss, you seem to be hurt. Please allow me to at least get you up!"

With every bit of his presence there, and his deep voice, she was feeling intoxicated in a good way. She seemed to breath faster now. She could feel the warmth of her breath on the back of her hand which was now steadily clamped to her left knee. She felt blood rush down her right arm that was still fasted to the ground.

"Um...it's okay..."

He then held her by her left hand, lifted her up, gave her a handkerchief to whisk off the dirt, unwound the scarf from her neck, and helped her tidy herself a little.

"My name is Adrian... I just thought you needed a little help, you know. I hope it is okay with you miss."
"Eh, um, it's alright. I'm Dolah, eh, nope, Dorah."

The pounding of her heart astonished her. It was almost crushing her chest.

"Not noooow!! No, not now 'Dolah'" She said to her inner self. "Please stop pounding. Pleeease darling." She continued.

He stared at her. I mean, he really stared at her...

"Can I help with something, eh, anything?"
"No, maybe just the earphones and the phone. I'll pick up the rest..."

So as he bent down to pick up and try fixing the two, she also was picking up the rest of her things, wiping dirt off each item and putting them back in her handbag.

And they both got thinking about this turn of events...

Adrian was thinking:
Like seriously? How has this just happened? I mean, just this morning, I wasn't gonna be coming this way. That dude had wasted me already, you know... How could he just change plans within a period of one hour? And all for a favor! Friendships are expensive - dude demands help without considering that I have my own pile of stuff to deal with and I am with so little time!! But here I am... and I am liking what I am feeling and seeing... She seems likeable, this Dorah. Attractive even. Mud or no mud on her face, she is beautiful. Could she be #TheOne? Naaah, experts say, there is nothing like #TheOne - that it is an overrated relationships gimmick that is used to fool and dissuade hearts from true love...
Well, but I can indirectly get her number by pretending I'm testing this phone of hers to see if it broke? Call myself from her phone maybe in order to get her number? Good idea. But I also can schedule some sort of date, yes? Kinda a meet-up or something? I guess that should work... But, but, caution Adrian. You don't wanna step in too fast and be mistaken for being a member of the infamous and avaricious #TeamMafisi SACCO. No way. Play it cool dude. Play it cool like a cucumber: innocently hanging around but secretly interested...
 

On the other side, this is what was going on in Dorah's mind;
Okay Dorah, okay. Calm down darling, calm down. Analyze. Breathe in. Breathe out. Good. Okay, now let's go on... Not long ago, you Dorah (ahem), in all your amazing choosiness, had wanted to believe in something else; something else, but not love. Not love at first sight! Did you hear that? Love is overrated, Dorah. Love at first sight is even worse. That's your mantra. Love is overrated. He can't be #TheOne. No, there is nothing like #TheOne. Okay. Are you okay? Do you think you are really really okay at this very moment, Dorah? Or do you wanna see a doctor or sumthin? Your head and heart are nuts kinda right now... What's happening to your heart, Dorah? What's happening to your heart? Please pinch yourself. Do it again. Harder. Damn! It's real. It's real, Dorah. The ecstasy is real. Deal with it. You gotta deal with it darling before it gets you carried away...

"Could I take you out sometime?" Adrian asked.
"Oh, right now?"
"No, maybe Friday afternoon or any afternoon you may be free. But still, I won't mind taking you out today, and yes, right now. The mud splash ain't a problem to me. I think you look beautiful with it still. But if you please, we can fix that somewhere within town, get you a change of cloths and you'll be good-to-go."
"Oh, I am quite busy of late, and I have plans for today. I'll look up my diary and see when I can be free then I'll call you."
"But I don't have your number and you don't have mine."
"Oh, my number? Give me yours, I'll call you."

He gave her his number and handed over her phone together with the broken earphones.
"You may need to get new ones, but the phone is alright."
"Thank you. Thanks a lot, Adrian..."
"The pleasure was mine, Dorah..."

Then they would both merry themselves in some poem (each one in their world but with words that resemble the ones below) as they walked away. Each to their own direction... Each in their own bliss, while thinking and gasping with delight at what just happened;

Love is an affection of engrossment
To feel its weight, its fanciness and its joy, you need to get buried in it
You need to die a little, and live a little to feel it...

Love is another chance
Another chance to lose
But we all love it - getting lost in it...

We pain and lose, get and get lost in this thing, in this beautiful thing...

If it is real, it is real; and if it is not, it is not

There are no middle grounds with it

Love can be found in the most miserable and unlikely places.

At the most miserable points it can call.

So please don't wither away when it calls...

Because maybe you could meet #TheOne

Or you could meet just someONE

Maybe you could meet none

But give it a try.

*********************

Maybe this first meeting will be the first step to proving these words to be true. But be it as it may, they were sure that they liked each other. 'LIKE' was a good word for then... No surprises, no over-do's, just good.
But as we'll discover later: she never called and that they never went for a date... (Ladies don't call guys for first dates, right?) (Damn dating rules!!) But they met again. Under different circumstances...
Let's wait and see.
(Maybe I'll write Part Two to this post, maybe I won't. I don't know. Let's wait and see.)

*******************

I'm dedicating Jimmy Needham's version of Forever And Ever Amen to y'all who believe in love; or y'all who, like Adrian and Dorah, won't mind giving it a try ;-);

(from Jimmy Needham's 2015 album "Vice & Virtue")

Lyrics:

INTRO:

I'm gonna love ya (forever)

I'm gonna love ya

I'm gonna love ya (forever)

I'm gonna love ya

You may think that I'm talking foolish
You've heard that I'm wild and I'm free
You may wonder how I can promise you now
This love that I feel for you always will be

See you're not just time that I'm killing
I'm no longer one of those guys
As sure as I live, this love that I give
Is gonna be yours until the day that I
die, oh baby...

CHORUS:
I'm gonna love you forever,
Forever and ever, Amen
As long as old men sit n' talk about the weather
As long as old women sit and talk about old men
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
I'll be happy to tell you again
I'm gonna love you, forever and ever,
Forever and ever, Amen

BRIDGE:
I'm gonna love ya (forever)
I'm gonna love ya

They say that time takes it's toll on the body
Makes a young girl's brown hair turn gray
But, honey, I don't care, I ain't in love with your hair
And if it all fell out, well, I'd love you anyway
They say time can play tricks on the memory
Make people forget things they knew
Well it's easy to see, it's happening to me
I've already forgotten every woman
but you

REPEAT CHORUS

Darlin, I'm gonna love you forever,
Forever and ever, Amen
As long as old men sit and talk about the weather
As long as old women sit and talk about old men
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
Just listen to how this song ends
I'm gonna love you forever and ever,
Forever and ever, Amen

ENDING:

(I'm gonna love ya (forever)

I'm gonna love ya) x4

Official album art for Jimmy Needham's "Vice & Virtue

Bonface Morris.

Of Rainbow Flags and Sociocultural Tolerance

We exist in a paradigm of madness. Epic madness. Cultural madness. Epic cultural madness that keeps escalating as the days go by. 

We live on the edge: we live in a season, time and age where we seem to love applauding freedom while, apparently, we campaign for and support bigotry. We carry separate black and white flags (not mosaics of black and white) and demand every other person to think we are accommodative; that we are both black and white. That is nonsense. Nobody can be both black and white - all at the same time. Nobody. That is being almost blind to color!

In this present global culture, one can be sure that whenever we crave to be understood as fully accomodative, we are mostly hot in pursuit for acceptance or out running away due to fear. We seek acceptance at all costs but at the expense of our morality and spirituality. We want to agree with everyone - EVERYONE - to agree with us. Even when we know we are stupid in whatever we are saying or supporting, even when we doubt it ourselves, even when we don't believe in whatever we would like others to believe in; yet still, we all want acceptance for our frailed ways that are deeply rooted in imbecility. This is not how a person saved by the priceless gift of God's Son should "adapt" to the world around him/her.

But is it necessary that PEOPLE should agree with us or that they should learn to tolerate us, or that we should agree with them? Again, is it good that we should tolerate people or push them to agree with us? Or even more, should we be so tolerant that we lack an independent opinion on any matter whatsoever?

*****************
The dictionary definition of tolerance is; a disposition to allow freedom of choice and behavior or the willingness to recognize and respect the beliefs or practices of others. Tolerance seeks to get a balance between two worldviews without arriving at the same conclusion on a matter. Tolerance is fragile ground:

 It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it - Aristotle

When you raise the issue of tolerance today, it is likely to bring about a discussion on the following  worldviews/philosophies; 

        1. Relativism (especially moral relativism)
        2. Secular humanism
        3. Postmodernism
        4. Christian universalism
        5. Secular humanism and
        6. Religious tolerance

The average Christian would argue that they have never heard of the above philosophies. They may even accuse me of being too wordy to no good end... But if we would simplify all the "wordiness" and say that Christianity is being attacked today from all angles of (a) world views (b) personal opinions and preferences (c) intellectual arguments (d) secular inclinations (e) social and cultural systems, I bet we would all agree that it is facing its own pile of challenges from today's sociocultural systems (the interaction of different elements of culture together with  is the patterned series of interrelationships existing between individuals, groups, and institutions and forming a coherent whole...)

So, with the argument that the Christian worldview (also called the Biblical worldview) is facing challenges (i.e. it is being debated against, being ridiculed, being "done away with" and being annihilated so-to-say) and opposition (i.e. being refuted, being downtrodden and being "edited" so-to-say) from various sociocultural systems, it emerges that we should consider how to interact, deal with and be gracious towards those around us.

The Bible instructs us to do the following while dealing with the world;

Colossians 4:6 (ESV): Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV): Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

and the following while dealing with fellow believers in Christ;

Ephesians 4:2 (NASB): ...with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love...

Both cases involve a certain degree of tolerance that is expected from the Christian.

*****************

When issues that require a certain level of tolerance arise today, we are caught in a web of first wanting to answer the following questions;
1. Are all people tolerant?
2. Are all people capable of tolerance?
3. Are all Christians supposed to be to be tolerant?
4. Are all Christians capable of tolerance?
5. To what level should tolerance (or lack of tolerance for that matter) be exercised?

The above questions help us in our struggle (or lack of struggle for those who have achieved such a level of grace) with wanting the Christian to become a more tolerant person (and not necessarily an accommodating person) towards current sociocultural changes in the world.

Note: I'll use the current wave of news and reactions since the Constitution of the American people legalized gay marriages in America (USA) this week to elaborate my point.

The rainbow pride flag representing gay pride. Source: Wikipedia

Tolerance would mean the following things to a Christian wanting to deal with such a big change in a sociocultural system:

1. That although we as Christians disagree with most of the things that happen in our cultural contexts (i.e. gay marriage because the Bible says so), we have every right and freedom to rebuke, correct and speak against them using the Christian worldview (because this is our platform and belief system) while not being judgmental of the perpetrators.
2. We should also try to bring to their senses "our Christian brothers and sisters" who choose to wave rainbow flags in support of sin. Read the following post to see one reaction from Kevin De Young of TGC towards Christians who are choosing to wave rainbow flags in support of the gay marriage ruling by the court in the US: 40 QUESTIONS FOR CHRISTIANS NOW WAVING RAINBOW FLAGS. 
3. We should pray for the perpetrators of such things. Yes, they will always rant and complain that Christians are extremely intolerant (forgetting that they too practice intolerance by denying us the freedom to talk about what we stand for and what we are against without pointing fingers); but that should not reduce us to a people who have not learned form our LORD on how to "bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them..." (Romans 12:14, ESV).
4. We should not pull out the "holier than thou" flag from where it has been lying since we got saved and start waving it in their faces! This, we should not do. But we should want to reach out to them as a people created in God's image and loved by Him that He died for their sins and ours (sins which include lying, gossip, homosexuality, anger etc - and of which most of us are guilty.)
5. We should not be accommodating towards sin and supporting it in any way lest we grow lukewarm and displease our LORD, but we should call out against and rebuke sin in love. Here is one great article to help us do so: Should We Oppose Sin and Religious Error? Does "Judge Not" Mean We Should Not Rebuke Evil?
6. We should remember that we cannot - if we are true disciples of Christ - agree with everyone on everything. (I guess, we should get used to this already because the world's volatility is escalating at a rapid pace.)

All in all, tolerance to a Christian is something we grow into as the Holy Spirit directs us. There are limits to every act of tolerance and a certain balance between rebuke and tolerance we should not only learn for the sake of the world but even for our own fellowships and congregations. May He lead us to do His Will even in these last days.

Bonface Morris.