Prayer Buckets, Myths and Nonsense

 When I'm thinking 'prayer' I'm thinking buckets. Buckets or categories or labels of prayers...

Red Bucket prayers in my head would mean serious cases like praying for someone very ill in the ER or ICU. Prayers related to serious emergencies on the Missionfield or Ministry. So this usually means intense praying for these cases like fasting and whole night praying. And praying everytime I think about the situation.

And then I have Orange Bucket prayers where its important but not so urgent. Like prayers related to unemployment or a family problem or board exams or an important interview. So I'll kneel and pray these prayers. With quite a degree of seriousness.

But then I also have a Yellow Bucket of prayers that I pray - for things like a promotion or a better job or a travel plan. And this one I pray enroute work. Just praying by and by.

When I pray prayers from the Green Bucket its usually very very relaxed prayers. I'm in my couch reading and pray casually for things like my desires. Half guilty and half ashamed about praying those prayers. I shy away and pray these with "0" or "no" intensity.

And after these years of following JESUS, I spent the last two weeks wondering "FATHER, when did I grow up? When did I get so 'mature' to think that only Red Bucket prayers impress YOU ? And since when did I start categorizing my prayers, petitions and requests assuming that this won't touch YOU and that will ???

GOD's been helping me burst these prayer myths:
1. GOD isnt interested in answering all kinds/ buckets/ categories of prayers
2. If I pray Green Bucket prayers fervently GOD's going to think I'm not growing up in my Christian walk.
3. GOD wants me to pray prayers related to Missions/ Ministries and HIS work above my desires.
4. GOD may or may not answer my prayers based on my personal needs. There is a 50/50 chance
5. Before praying for my needs I should look around and count myself blessed. How dare I pray for my allergies when another brother in church is terminally ill !
6. GOD has a quota on the number of prayers HE answers. If HE blessed me a lot in a given season I shouldnt expect any more.

These myths made my prayer life weak and ineffective. I slowly lost my passion to pray bold confident prayers for everything and anything imagining that the LORD finds such an attitude petty and childish.
I had been so busy categorizing/ labeling my prayers that I was often discouraged to ask my FATHER for things I wanted. Worried that GOD would view me as childish I stopped being childlike with HIM.

While we bucket our prayers HE stores all our prayers in a golden incense bowl in Heaven. There is absolutely no mention of urgency of prayers in the Bible. There is no mention of how many prayers GOD answers in a day, a week, a month, a year or in a lifetime. There is no data to support the myth that GOD answers prayers to heal faster than the prayers that seem petty to me. Or that HE ever told anyone not to pray a certain prayer. JESUS didn't tell the woman with the issue of blood that she was spiritually immature to expect a healing while a young child was so ill that she was going to die. Or to the blind man that he was silly to want to see when the KING of kings was going to die !
And somehow we all want to set aside praying for smaller needs instead of simply believing and expectantly believing and having faith in the ONE prayed to...

While I am not encouraging you to treat GOD as your vending machine, I'm asking you to approach the Throne of Grace boldly and confidently and make your smallest to your greatest requests known to GOD and HE has promised to bless you far above and beyond anything you can ever dare ask, think or imagine !

Pastor Schaller on 2013

To Everything There Is A Season Posted on: Jan 07, 2013 Pastor Thomas Schaller

"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4). The New Year is upon us and in many ways, as Ecclesiastes reveals, it will be like all other years. Some will be born, some will die. There will be weeping, tears, and also laughter. We celebrate as we turn the page on our calendars, but things are not that different. Really, there is nothing new; we live in the same world. The earth begins another trip around the sun and we mark this, we see the times and the seasons. We recognize and reflect on what has happened and look forward to what's ahead. David wrote in Psalm 90 that 70 or 80 years is a good, long life if it is lived in the purpose of God. We are to ask God to teach us how to "number our days" -- we are to number not our years, but our days (Ps. 90:12). There are only so many for each of us. Let's refuse to manage our life our way; may we learn to go with the flow of what God is doing. If something is lost, recognize that this could be the hand of God at work. If something is gained, that, too, will come from Him. "A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace" (Ecclesiastes 3:5-8). Will this year bring wars? Yes, but we also hope for peace. Yet we know that this is a strange and changing world. We see God at work, but also we see the heartbrokenness and death. We were not made for death and its sting. We hope not to see so much of it. If we do see death, we know that Jesus, who wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11), knows about it and is moved by it, too. Here's good news: we will be present with the Lord -- soon, we hope. There will be no more tears, no more sorrows, no more hospitals, no more police stations, no more losing. Then and there will be only gaining, only increasing in understanding the deep things. Our hope and our knowledge is in Him who never changes. By His great counsels, we are able to be giant-killers and branches reaching over strong walls; we are able to grow as missionaries, pastors, leaders, and servants. May this year bring new chapters in our lives with God. Let it be a year of God doing something. Let's ask Him for His mercy. May He shower us with His love, answer our prayers, encourage us, and empower us. May He stir in us a hunger and a desire that we haven't had recently. Let us think about God's love for us. Let us think of God's healing for us, His faithfulness to us, and His way for us. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Our Choosing

I read an article that spoke about a discovery related to unfaithfulness. Scientists have now discovered the chromosome in man's DNA that determines unfaithfulness. So by genetically modifying that chromosome your partner would lose his/ her potential to cheat on you.

In response to this discovery, celebrities were asked if they would use this to have an honest relationship with their spouse. The answer was obviously a big NO!

People said they want their partners to be faithful out of love and out of choice. 

And GOD gave us a free will so that we can choose to love HIM and obey HIM. We were not created to be robots. Just going through the motions of life. We were created with a choice so that we choose to obey and love GOD.

Isnt that beautiful ? That GOD would want us to love HIM without manipulating us or engineering us to do that. 

At the end of life's journey when we stand face to face before a very Holy GOD we would be surprised to see just how much potential we really had in the life we lived. We would see just how far we strayed away from GOD's real plan for our lives, "If only we listened !" Then we would embarrassingly discover the endless possibilities and the great life that we traded in for the good life. We dont want to be standing before HIS Throne thinking I lived a life but wasted my chance.

So the things that happen dont just happen. But we chose to do those certain somethings 

that brought us to where we are. And if we'd only dare to rededicate our lives even after a big blow up or I let you down, GOD can work all those things together and then use it to bring out something good when we love HIM and HE will fulfill HIS purposes for our lives !

So we haven't really been programmed to live the life we lead. But we choose to do things our way every once in a while. So we fail miserably every once in a while. Then we go to Our FATHER and admit we have so that HE  can take over and over rule our choices....