HOPE IN PRAYER -By Hope

Some Anointed Fighters do it before they go to bed. Others only do it before they eat. And some fighters only think to do it in between rounds when they are loosing the "good fight." Any idea of what I'm talking about? I am refering to the communication between Anointed Fighters and their Heavenly Trainer. We call it Prayer.

Hi everyone, this is Hope. Congradulations on advancing through the ranks of ChristJitsu. Did you know that every Anointed Fighter has questions about prayer: "Why don't I always get the things that I pray for?" "If God already knows how the "good fight" is going to end, why do I have to pray?" "Is there a right way and a wrong way to pray?" In this next training, we will try to answer these questions and others. And, hopefully, by the end of this belt, you will understand the importance and power of prayer.

Prayer is the way in which we communicate with the Grandmaster and He communicates with us. It is our connection to heaven. It is our opportunity to come before God to talk to Him about whatever is on our heart, and it is also our chance to open ourselves up to what He has to say to us. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 to "Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." That means that we are to make prayer a consistent, daily part of our ChrisJitsu training. And in 1 Timothy 2:8 we read, "I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."

Now, you might think, "If God knows everything, why do we have to pray?" God wants us to pray because He wants us to willingly share our life with him. He wants us to in faith seek His face. He wants us to experience the full power of ChristJitsu by believing Him and coming to Him, and then seeing Him work in our "good fighting" careers. He wants a relationship with us. Anointed Fighters should never think, "Why do I have to pray." You should feel honored and humbled that the Grandmaster in heaven wants to talk to you, desires to talk to you. And the great thing about God is that He is truly interested in what we have to say to Him. He's never too busy for us. And we can talk to him anytime and anywhere. Isaiah 65:24 reads, "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear."

Philippians 4:6-7 tells us "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Prayer is one of the most important practices in the lives of ChristJitsu trained Anointed Fighters. The first Anointed Fighters recognized the importance of prayer, and they asked the Grandmaster to personally teach them how to pray. That is where we get the prayer "Our Father" from (Luke 11:1-4), because that is the prayer that Christ taught the Anointed Fighters to show them all of the different areas that you should remember to include in prayer. The ChristJitsu experts didn't ask Christ to teach them how to win every fight against evil, but they saw how awesome He communicated with God, and they wanted to be able to do the same thing. And if the Grandmaster and the first Anointed Fighters thought it was important to pray, don't you think you should feel the same way?

Many times, we take praying for granted during our training and don't really think twice about. How many of you prayed for the Grandmaster to help you understand what you are ready now before you began? What are some of the things that you pray about? How many Anointed Fighters only pray when you are really in trouble? Maybe you've even prayed, "Lord, if you get me out of this round without tapping out, I'm going to change my ways." And at the time you said those words, you prayed and perhaps even made all sorts of promises to the Grandmaster. And then once the round was over, you forgot all about what you promised God you would do. Or maybe you only think to pray when you need or want something. Sometimes we treat the Grandmaster more like a magic source instead of God. We call on Him when we want something, but the rest of the time we forget all about Him. Well, let's clear up any wrong ideas you might have about prayer and tell you what prayer is not.

Prayer is not some magic process where you say a few chosen words and then everything you desire will come true. Sometimes we say our prayer and we end it with the words "In Jesus' name," and we think we can just kick back and wait for the championship to come. Prayer is not getting God to do what we want. Prayer is a time of coming before God with our concerns and asking Him to show us what He wants for us, and then trusting in the way He responds even if it is different than what we asked for.

And when we say "In Jesus' name," we should really think about what that means. When we accept the Grandmaster Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are then able to stand before God, not in our old tapped out sinful condition, but with Christ as our mediator. 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

So now that you know a little more about what prayer is, ask the Grandmaster to help you understand and learn all that he wants you to learn during this next phase of training.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, in Jesus name, please help me understand and appreciate all that you do for me. Lord, may your perfect will be done in my life. AMEN