Prayer: A Way We Can Talk to God

Another form of worship to God is to talk to Him by praying to Him. When we spend time with God in prayer we can grow our relationship with Him. Because of praying, we can know right from wrong, God can speak to us in any way (if we listen), praising Him, thanking Him for everything that He has done and is going to do, bringing up our requests and worries, praying for other people, just simply talking to Him like you would a person, and most importantly repenting (confessing our sins). That one is important because we have to be made right with God again and put Him back in the center. One thing I can't wait for is Reign Down USA. That is God's vision for the US to unite together and repenting to God to ask Him to come back to our country. It really will be wonderful.
It also is important to pray to God without ceasing. Whether that be talking to Him throughout the day during everything spending private time in prayer. The cool thing is God always hears your prayers when you call out to Him. An example of this is, One time when I was waiting in line to ride Kingda Ka (the roller coaster) suddenly Kingda Ka broke down for a little while. Instead of being disappointed and worrying, I just kept praying in the line by saying, "God, please give the men wisdom to fix Kingda Ka and please let it be fixed soon. I prayed that over and over until finally Kingda Ka started again. I was so happy because God had heard the prayer. He also did some other great things that time I was going to ride it. The lesson here is that God really does hear you when you call anytime. You can even praise God all day. One way I do that is worship songs go through my head throughout the day. A really good verse that goes along with this is, "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice." Psalm 55:17. We should try hard to really spend time with God.
"Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

-Hannah K.

Worshiping God

Currently in Bible class we are learning about the Psalms and from that learning how we should praise God and pray to Him. We were talking about different types of worship. The main types seem to be singing. I really like corporate worship because at times you can feel God's presence when people are uniting together and worshiping God all in one place. I also like to learn new songs to sing to worship God and tell Him how great He is. Some cons to corporate worship are, sometimes people have a hard time focusing on God and really giving Him there all and showing Him how much they love Him. When that happens, people are to concerned about what others would think of them if they really sing from their heart. At times that happens and I get distracted. I should try hard to just really worship Him and not care what others think. I also like private worship because you can really focus and sing from their heart. During both times of worship I love to think about how great God is really think about what the songs are saying. I love praising God in every way, my favorite is singing though because God really the words really express how I feel about Him.
This year I have realized that when you worship God it is not about the music, but about the words and singing them from my heart. At the high school retreat I really learned that and sang from my heart. A great verse to close this entry, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16

Strive to See What Jesus Sees

Another great truth I learned in Bible class starts with the verse, "for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart" 1 Samuel 16:7. Every day we go through life always judging people for what they look like or how they act. It is something we do because we are all sinners and we are not perfect, but as Christians it is important that we become more like Jesus and try hard to see how Jesus sees. Since God is the one who made us all it is easy for Him to look in our hearts because He knows everything and can do anything. For us though it can be hard. A lot of the times when we make friends it is because we choose friends based on how they look or act. From knowing this truth we should ask God to hep us to get to know people for what they are like on the inside and spend time really getting to know who they are inside. Only God can help us become more like Him and not be judgemental.
-Hannah K.

"To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice"

One thing I learned about in Bible class is an important principle that God wants us to follow. It is "To obey is better than sacrifice..." That is an important thing to learn. God wants us to obey Him no matter what the circumstance is or what God tells us to do. Some people think that sacrificing is better (just like Saul), because obeying God is a main theme expressed throughout the Bible. God says to Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit and even then they disobeyed. Another verse in the Bible tells us, "Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Ephesians 6:1. When we obey our parents, if we are Christians we are obeying God. God put our parents over us to obey them. it still is important to obey God no matter what. I like what Samuel said to Saul, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king." 1 Samuel 15:23 From that we learn that when we disobey God it is like we have commited a bad sin. We need to ask God for help so tha we can obey Him and do what He says. -Hannah K.