2 comments on "Can I really talk to God so personally?"

Prayer: I know I can use Bible language to talk with you God, but I want to be more honest and raw with what I’m wrestling with and not have to filter it through the Bible and try to find the right keywords to express what I have to say. That’s okay, right? The point is for me to talk with you, and I have a lot to say, or at least, to type.

Today I’ve had a lot of thoughts racing through, well, not a lot, but some racing thoughts. More than I wanted to have. I would have preferred to have less for a more restful day on the weekend.

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0 comments on "Reading the Bible to Learn How to Pray"

I’m slowly reading this book on prayer by Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. Having heard how he speaks, it takes several times listening to a talk to digest and get the denseness of thought that he presents. Same thing with the book.

One chapter talked about praying to God requires that I know who I’m talking to. That’s reasonable; that makes sense. Who is this God? It cannot be just be what I hope or wish God could be. My own imagination isn’t swift and smart enough to conceive of a God big and strong enough that can get me through the storms and challenges of life.

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0 comments on "How does giving thanks help us?"

Thank you for finding this blog post. I like to start my blog post with giving thanks for my readers. The title of this blog post I have Duckduckgo search engine to thank.

I confess that I am not very good at giving thanks. I know I should do it more. I know it’s supposed to be a healthy thing to do. Recent research about our brains has found more scientific evidence for what gratitude does for each person. Here’s a few of the many health benefits of gratitude:

  • Less bothered by aches and pains
  • Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking
  • More alert, alive, and awake
  • More joy, pleasure, and happiness

It seems to me that in the recent years, there’s a lot more chatter about gratitude, like the neurological benefits, and how giving thanks (more often using the word gratitude than giving thanks) has become more mainstream with gratitude journal, with Oprah talking about it (there’s an indicator of mainstreaming). Here’s a popular video that has helped people feel more gratitude to give more thanks.

Acclaimed filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg’s TEDx talk on gratitude went viral (meaning it got millions of views, and counting). For those you who are visual, watch this and feel how gratitude starts to gush to overflowing.

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1 comment on "Experiment to Experiencing God"

For whatever reasons in recent history, we here in the United States are hearing more about hurricanes and massacres and scandals. That can be understandable weighty. And this is added on top of the human condition, where occasionally people get diseases, like nobody wants to hear the words, “You have cancer.” Some people lose loved ones to whatever causes of death, that is, the sting of death is still a painful loss.

When people experience pain and suffering, it provokes 2 reactions about the existence of God. For some it drives them to anger and bitterness against God, because if he was powerful he could have stopped the bad thing from happening. For others, it drives them to God for comfort, help, and strength, because the pain is too much to bear alone.

Continue Reading Experiment to Experiencing God