Ernesto

Had an interesting conversation last night. I told my friend back home in Indonesia about the weather here. These past few days in Virginia we have rainfall. The ERNESTO hurricane from the South / Florida brought this up and we have non-stop rain for 2-3 days. My neighbor's house was flooded, thank the Lord that our house was just fine. My friend gave comment "Wow, America is always struck by all kinds of things; hurricanes, tornadoes, flood, etc." Maybe God is telling something.

I said, "Well, don't forget that Indonesia has been through all kinds of disasters also, tsunami, earthquakes, floods and other stuffs." He replied, "Yes, Indonesia has all kinds of disasters, but the government and the people never changes." We pray all kinds of prayers but they're just the same.
Suddenly something else poped-up in my mind. What is the purpose of prayer, anyway? Yes, prayer changes things, we heard those a lot. But is it to change the condition OR something else. Prayer supposed to change the person who prays, not the situation nor others. Remember Sadrach, Mesach, and Abednego. They were accused because they prayed not to the king but to their God. Then they said, "..the God we serve is able to save us from it and he will rescue us from you, but even he does not..." Even he does not, this is between life and death. Sure it took prayers for them to be able to say that. Yes, they prayed (as Jewish they prayed in the morning, day, and night). And yes it did change them instead of the whole situation that they were facing.

Oswald Chambers said,

"God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature."

We Christians used to pray that God would changes this and that, anything but ourselves (especially when we're dealing in a conflict). Ha ha ha.... I used to pray that. Now I'm thankful that God gave me a simple reminder. My prayer is that God continues to change me to be more like Him. Long way to go, fellas.