How desperately are we praying?
With a contrite heart or with a joyful heart?
And what do we pray for when we pray?
For our salvation or for more blessings?
Christian churches in Korea are known as the people of prayer because they love to gather and pray always, even every early in the morning before they go to work. Their prayers wake the dawn not just because they pray loudly but desperately. Someone might wonder why.
Quite some years ago, as they let their neighboring county, who had been equipped with the modernized western warship, strip their land for thirty six years and then let the another war destroy their land totally, the war between the capitalism and communism after World War II.
By God’s help, they were able to keep the half of the land, a little smaller size than the State of Wisconsin, for the freedom of worship. However, the cost was not cheap because numerous people had to give their lives from near and far to save them. And the remnants had been starved to death for more than 10 years after the war was ended. Another words, there were not much left. But it was not all because their land was divided into two, the north and the south by the ideology.
Where was their refuge and where was their help? Only God, those believers and many people there realized. I remember how hard we prayed gathering every in the morning bringing contrite heart in desperation for our salvation and blessings through 1960s and 1970s. Now their prayers for more than a half century have been answered and it has brought them wealth and health; however, they still gather together every early in the morning and pray desperately to seek God’s presence and salvation.
They have learned it from their experience... God is truly alive!
Some years ago, one of my friends asked me to lead one session for their prayer retreat sharing Korean spirituality with them. So I warned him before I accepted it, "Hey, brother, it will not be just sharing what it is but we will do what they are still doing across the Pacific Ocean every in the morning"... meaning, "we will pray together as Koreans do every morning for that session".
So at the end of my session, I invited those attenders to pray desperately with a contrite heart. But my friend who invited me to lead came to me and whispered into my ear, “Kyochul, we are not Koreans and this is not Korea!”. I realized, “We don’t have to be desperate now because of the blessings that we have from God.” But I questioned myself, "Really?"
Not long ago, a message by Jim Cymbala woke me up.... when I was in deep sleep being saturated by the mannerism and human methodology in the ministry of 21st Century post modernism.
So now how desperately are we praying? Or how joyfully are we giving thanks to God?
With a contrite heart or with a joyful heart?
And what do we pray for when we pray?
For our salvation or for more blessings?
Christian churches in Korea are known as the people of prayer because they love to gather and pray always, even every early in the morning before they go to work. Their prayers wake the dawn not just because they pray loudly but desperately. Someone might wonder why.
Quite some years ago, as they let their neighboring county, who had been equipped with the modernized western warship, strip their land for thirty six years and then let the another war destroy their land totally, the war between the capitalism and communism after World War II.
By God’s help, they were able to keep the half of the land, a little smaller size than the State of Wisconsin, for the freedom of worship. However, the cost was not cheap because numerous people had to give their lives from near and far to save them. And the remnants had been starved to death for more than 10 years after the war was ended. Another words, there were not much left. But it was not all because their land was divided into two, the north and the south by the ideology.
Where was their refuge and where was their help? Only God, those believers and many people there realized. I remember how hard we prayed gathering every in the morning bringing contrite heart in desperation for our salvation and blessings through 1960s and 1970s. Now their prayers for more than a half century have been answered and it has brought them wealth and health; however, they still gather together every early in the morning and pray desperately to seek God’s presence and salvation.
They have learned it from their experience... God is truly alive!
Some years ago, one of my friends asked me to lead one session for their prayer retreat sharing Korean spirituality with them. So I warned him before I accepted it, "Hey, brother, it will not be just sharing what it is but we will do what they are still doing across the Pacific Ocean every in the morning"... meaning, "we will pray together as Koreans do every morning for that session".
So at the end of my session, I invited those attenders to pray desperately with a contrite heart. But my friend who invited me to lead came to me and whispered into my ear, “Kyochul, we are not Koreans and this is not Korea!”. I realized, “We don’t have to be desperate now because of the blessings that we have from God.” But I questioned myself, "Really?"
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).
Of course, there is neither Korean nor American in front of God... as we all deal with the reality of sin and death.
Not long ago, a message by Jim Cymbala woke me up.... when I was in deep sleep being saturated by the mannerism and human methodology in the ministry of 21st Century post modernism.
So now how desperately are we praying? Or how joyfully are we giving thanks to God?
A message by Jim Cymbala for the worship leaders during their national music conference
Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior
by Fanny Crosby, 1868
Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry;
while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry;
while on others thous art calling, do not pass me by.
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