Supermarket Girl – Chapter 18

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

It was time for another family get together and James found himself delivering another teaching to his children. This time the teaching was about prayer.

“A Christian is a person who is determined to build his or her life on the foundation of God’s Word. To do that, one must spend time with God in prayer; communicating with God. Prayer is the palpable connection between us and God. If you desire to be connected to God, you must make time for prayer. Even if you hear nothing from God, you can definitely speak to Him believing that He created you and He loves you enough not to be indifferent to your needs. It is only through prayer that we get to know our Creator intimately. We also get to know what His will and purpose for us is. Prayer gives us the ability to observe and understand the signs that point us in the right direction. It also helps us grasp the meaning of the thoughts and ideas that go through our minds.

Prayer is an act of taking responsibility for the lives of those who depend on you including yourself. If you accept responsibility for yourself and perhaps your children, your spouse, your parents, your siblings, your friends or your employees etc., it all starts with prayer. If you do not pray for yourself and for those who depend on you, you are failing. Without prayer, many blessings are missed and fear abounds.

Fear is the cause of all evil in the world. If you don’t want to commit evil, you need to dispel fear completely. Daily prayer is the only means by which to dispel fear. God does not desire for us to fear him. His desire is for us to love Him. When you connect with God daily, you gain the courage and strength to face life. Morning prayer is a must because it prepares you to face the day.

We have many needs whose satisfaction we have no control of. Who controls your heartbeat and the proper functioning of your whole body? Who provides the air that you breathe? Who controls the time?

Prayer is a confirmation that you are not taking God for granted. When you connect with God you acknowledge that you need Him. That acknowledgement is something that God values and you can expect a reward from Him for that.

Nobody likes being taken for granted. God doesn’t like it, and once you realize that He is the giver of life, you will also realize that taking Him for granted is a grave mistake.”

When James completed the teaching, a discussion followed as his children asked him questions and he answered them. As usual, James took great satisfaction in knowing that his children listened to him. He knew that having your children at whatever age listen to you and follow your advice is a blessing and he thanked God for it.

Even James found it hard to believe just how much he had changed. It surprised him that a person like him could be transformed and renewed to such an extent as to become almost unrecognizable even to himself. He was not ashamed of his past. He accepted it as a phase he had to go through in order to become the James that he was now. In fact, he was happy that he had a past to speak of because it served as a constant reminder that on his own, he could do nothing.

Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

His love for God increased every time he remembered that he almost destroyed everything good in his life due to alcoholism. He told himself that being weak was a good thing because it gave him the chance to seek God’s help and see God work a miracle in his life. In the days of his alcoholism, James thought that life was for pleasure. Now he realized that life is for joy. Pleasure is momentary while joy is permanent and can be experienced even through suffering.