In an attempt to reinvigorate my personal devotion time as I headed into the busy period of college assignments and exams I decided to create a Sabbath type time out mid week and have a time of Bible study and prayer. I endeavoured to find somewhere away from my home and all its distractions so that I could find new and fresh ways to have my devotional time.
2. Reporting the Ministry Action
I found a small café at Sandgate which allowed me to sit by myself and not have to worry about many distractions. It was a Thursday morning so the café was quiet and I was able to dedicate a good thirty minutes to reading through the book of Jude and highlighting and underlining the passages using the method Ps Murray taught me that he uses for personal devotions. By studying a whole book (even a small one) I was able to get a whole lot more out of the Bible study time of my devotion.
I had been really struggling to spend a lot of time in prayer during my quiet time and had been thinking about how I could find a more personal and constructing way of praying. I had a simple idea to send a text message to most of the people in the contact list of my mobile phone asking a simple question. “How can I pray for you today?” Minutes after sending the message out I had almost 10 replies from friends, with very basic – usually single point – prayer requests. I felt connected with my friends, knowing what they were dealing with for that day and I was able to firstly praise God for my relationship with Him, and the friendships I had, before going through and praying for my friends immediate needs. As I was praying more reply messages came in and I continued to reflect on them and pray. By the time I had finished my prayer time – 45 minutes later – I had received 25 replies from friends, all with different pray or praise points.
Throughout the rest of the day I continued to receive messages. All in all 36 people responded, and I felt I was having a day-long devotion time. At the end of the day I contacted everyone who had replied and followed up on how things had went – this time their replies showed me that there had been almost immediate answers to prayer in some cases. It was an incredibly uplifting time.
3. Personal Reflection
I was incredibly encouraged that friends, both from City North and elsewhere, were willing to share a personal prayer point with me on their Thursday morning. I was also quite amazed at how such a simple idea and action completely revitalised my personal devotion time.
I think having relevant, personal points to pray about made my prayer time feel more real. I have a passion for my friends and so when I knew their needs I could see how my prayers were important so gave me a passionate motivation to pray. God taught me that our personal devotion time isn’t simply a ritual we should complete so we can call ourselves Christians, but a time of real connection with Him, revolving around the things that we find important, because God is intimately involved in our lives.
By contacting people that evening and seeing how their days had panned out God blessed me by showing me how He works through prayer. People who had potentially traumatic meetings ended up having more encouraging times, others who were unwell were feeling better, and most people replied about how encouraged they were that someone had been intentionally praying for them that day.
4. Theological Reflection
Matthew 6:5-8 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him…”
I know I was in public and not in my room, but I had found somewhere out of the way where no one would notice me. I had come to God humbly and I believe that the text message and replies really assisted me in not ‘babbling like pagans’ because my prayers were much more pointed and focused. God showed me that He truly does know what we need before we ask, because one of my prayers was to have a more intimate prayer time, which he provided.
5. Personal Future
I think sending out that text week in week out would ruin the impact of it. However by adding all those points to my journal I was able to continue praying and following up. This has continued to enrich my personal devotion times. Maybe in a month or so I will send another message and see what happens.
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