euu typedd*:
blog
(Friday, June 3, 2016-)
+8:30 AM]*
# Presumed mercy and unity-
so i joined a friend at a random prayer meet.
and actually, i was pretty unsettled.
for one thing, i had a lack of sleep and another was that i was frustrated that i had to cancel gym. -__-
i was actually cranky the whole day that my plans were not being realized.
that said, 2 things were bothering me during the prayer meeting and am still ruminating on them:
Mercy:
this relates to the issue of rest and begging. When we pray to God for something, we trust in Him for what we pray for and we claim it in Jesus' name.
so when we do not yet receive what we ask of Him, we pray again. and again. and again.
What is the issue here: that God did not hear or that we do not yet have what we prayed for?
i struggled with this and i still do. but i remind myself, that there is also joy in waiting for God to move. Just as how the bible points out the joy in waiting and carrying a pregnancy to term, there ought to be joy in waiting upon the Lord. the issue is usually my impatience and lack of trust.
if i beg God to do something, am i presuming to have more mercy than God Himself? that He must do the very thing i asked?
i do think that prayer is also accompanied by His peace and His rest. as we cry to Him, we must also believe that He hears us and we can then rest because He does.
Unity:
there was a prayer point for unity in the universal church, to tear down denominational hostility and barriers.
but my question was this: is unity seen in conformity? is not unity seen better because there is diversity?
Believers of Christianity typically believe in the same God and the same bible, but have different theologies and doctrine. When Jesus came, He went against the Pharisees and the Saddusees not because they were causing disunity, but because of their evil hearts. He proclaimed Himself to be the One and only True way to the Father. We believe that.
but to pray for unity, is to presume that there is no unity. and for me to work in a denomination that i don't belong in, i have seen unity in the church: when a denomination extends its hand to another denomination to celebrate God together, to help the needy and extend the KOG. do they have to abolish their differences? No. Unity is seen in spite of their differences.
i was reminded of the pre-prayer meet introductions over dinner. i was introduced as working at a particular church of a nominal denomination. and immediately, they were asking about stereotypes of whether we operate in this doctrine or that, if we operate in this gift or open to it.
the presumption, the stereotypes, all this led to the idea of disunity. it was not that the church was not united, but it was precisely because of this kind of thinking, this kind of labeling, this stereotype, this xenophobia that causes disunity. and ironically, we pray for unity.
do not be ignorant of this my brothers and sisters.
the story ends like this;
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