Title: Prayer with a Consciousness
Contents
Title: Conscious Prayer
Bible: Colossians 4:2-3
Starting Point of the Word>>
This time, we would like to share a message with the subject of “Conscious Prayer”.
Foreigners say that the deep impression they have on the Korean church is “the morning prayer meeting”.
Considering the social situation when the Korean church accepted the gospel, it was an environment of the times that could not be endured without prayer.
The country adopted a national isolation policy, which earned it the nickname of a hermit country. It was an era when they were jealous of each other due to the party conflict, and were busy contemplating succession of power.
At that time, when people who were ahead of the times conscious of the times accepted Christianity, many Suguists condemned them as children of Holo who did not worship ancestors, and many Christians had to die.
With the signing of the Korea-U.S. Trade Treaty in 1884, Western culture was brought in along with missionaries.
Therefore, the first members of our Korean church were all conscious patriots and therefore conscious national leaders.
The new education was science education directly linked to Western culture.
Looking at the prayers of the saints at that time, all of them were the patriotic people first, then their own problems.
There is something we need to realize by looking at our ancestors of faith in the past, and there are many differences between our prayers and our ancestors of faith.
At this time, we also want to consider the difference between the prayers of the forefathers of faith and our prayers through the Word.
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First, we need to think about what kind of prayer we are praying today.
The members of our Korean church pray harder than people from any other country.
However, compared to such fervent prayers, it does not have a significant impact on social change.
It is pointed out that there are two problems with prayer in our Korean church. One is blind prayer and the other is fanatical prayer.
Blindness means blind faith, and fanaticism means fanatical narcissism.
It seems that there were such people even at the time of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
So he said this too.
“We must overcome the errors of blind faith and fanaticism in our religious life. This is because blind faith and fanaticism cannot both seek the will of God. That is, blind faith and fanaticism are nothing more than passions to satisfy one's will and desires in the name of faith. To have faith in God means to seek the <God's will> first and do our best to achieve it.”
How should we pray in this way? issue arises.
Even Jesus told us not to pray like the Pharisees do.
What kind of prayer did the Pharisees pray?
They prayed more consciously of people than of God.
So I prayed while looking up at the sky for a long time at the crossroads where people could see.
Many people come and go and pray for a long time and say, ‘Hey! Is that person a very pious person? I wanted to hear people say, ‘Is that person a person who prays a lot?’
But they did not do what they prayed for.
That's why the Lord told you not to pray like the Pharisees.
They thought that they had to pray for a long time before Heavenly Father would hear them.
Therefore, our prayers should not be seen as prayers, formal prayers like the Pharisees.
Next, then, how should we pray?
That is conscious prayer.
As the French theologian Louis Evli pointed out in his book How to Pray?
What does a prayer acceptable to God mean?
It is a prayer to do as the Lord has taught you.
The Lord said, 'Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness.'
He told us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
In other words, conscious prayer is to pray for the <Kingdom of God> and pray for the <Righteousness of God>.
It is to pray for God's kingdom and God's justice to be realized on this earth.
From this point of view, in order for our country to seek peace and stability, as the Lord taught, we, as saints, must pray consciously.
However, we see different aspects of prayer that are revealed through prayer.
One class of believers pray only for the material they need to live in the world or for their own success.
Another group of believers are interested in their own humanity and spirituality, and pray with interest in restoring the image of God and building the kingdom of God.
Contrasting these two types of prayer, one prays for possessions and the other prays for existence.
Even without words, we can get a good idea of what conscious prayer is like in the prayers of these two groups of saints.
But when we look at our prayers, most of them are about possessions rather than conscious prayers.
If this prayer is consistent, our prayers are no different from prayers based on ups and downs.
Of course, the Bible says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
However, this does not mean that you should follow your own desires.
As the Lord has taught us, he said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
What is all this?
What the Gentiles are looking for, that is, what to eat? what to drink what to wear These are the daily life concerns.
Since Heavenly Father already knows all these things, it means that you should first seek the kingdom of God and God's righteousness and live your life.
Finally, therefore, we must be awake and conscious prayerful saints.
If you look at today's verse, you can see this clearly.
According to the joint translation, it says, “Always be vigilant and pray constantly with a grateful heart.”
There are several places in the Bible to 'keep awake'.
And it says, 'Arise from the dead'.
The dead here refer to those who are living a life of faith without consciousness.
If you look at sleep, there is sleep, and there is deep sleep.
Deep sleep refers to a state of deep sleep, not a state of normal sleep.
There are people who fall into a deep sleep like this.
We may all be deeply asleep in our self-consciousness.
Because we are immersed in our self-consciousness, God is trying to lock us into our self-consciousness.
God also tries to do his own will and his own thoughts.
Unconscious prayers are mechanically and habitually wetted with inertia.
In this case, in most cases, we pray on our own or ask according to our own thoughts.
Their thoughts, feelings, words, and actions are out of harmony and they pray impulsively or with passion.
This prayer may have been the prayer of most Korean Christians today.
So, there are many church members, but early morning prayer meetings are successful, and there are many all-night, late-night, and Friday prayer meetings, but society does not change.
No, let alone society, there is no change in one's personality.
We, as saints at this time, should refrain from praying consciously of people like the Pharisees.
At the end of the speech>>
Today, our members must become 'conscious saints'.
And we must become saints who offer conscious prayer.
Conscious prayer is not praying for me, but praying according to God's will and method.
Politics, economy, and society will change when each of us, each Christian, becomes a conscious prayer.
In that sense, first, a conscious prayer movement in our church should be promoted.
First of all, I bless you in the name of the Lord that all of us who pray for God's will to be done through us.