And one of my CG bro/sis emailed me a very encouraging email. =) Was so surprised to receive it, but s/he thanked me for being an inspiration to her with regards to a more prayerful life. Hee. Praise the Lord.

Dear brother,

I want to encourage you too. I am always blessed when I receive your smses on prayer. You take time to think what you want to intercede for others, and for yourself. You know that when you pray, you will receive, hence, you take time to formulate your prayer points. That goes to show how much you know you can depend on our Lord.

My prayer life is motivated by people like you. I am not a very "prayer person". I think you can see that. I do more than I pray. Yet, when I am around you, I see how you put God in perspective through prayer, and by that, I am encouraged to take time to think of prayer points, and pray for people around me as well.

Thank you for being a motivator to me in Christ.

May the Lord keep you and bless you. May His grace continue to overflow in your life.

Thank You so much dear Lord. Deeply touched and encouraged to keep on. :)

I think it all started one night, when Guoqiang was my shepherd. We were at the Istana Park, and GQ asked me, "What can I pray for you?"

I hemmed and hawed, 'cos I didn't know what prayer requests to ask for. So I simply gave the answer: "Pray for me to love God and people more."

Sounds good, right? Well... GQ corrected me. 'Cos he understood that I was giving a "spiritual" answer... but in reality, I wasn't really relying very much on God in my prayer life.

No, there's nothing wrong in asking to grow in love for God and for people, but it's also the reason why I would say that... is it because I genuinely want to grow in love for God and for people, or just give a "spiritual"-sounding answer to look correct in front of my shepherd?

So haha, well fast-forward to today. Over the years, I've been learning to rely on God in more and more ways and to learn to bring more and more of my life to Him in prayer. Sometimes just to walk and talk with Him, as a man does with his friend. And honestly, I tell you, somehow I sense God's presence very strongly when I start spending time with him, walking and talking with him in the park.

Sort of like how it was when the Lord walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden, in the cool of the day. :)

Prayer's a delightful habit to start. You grow into it, and learn to pray according to what He wants. And prayer opens the way for God to do great and marvellous things, things so wonderful that you can't imagine it would actually happen. And there are things that have happened so beautifully and amazingly that even now, I still can't believe what I saw. :)

Thank God for Guoqiang, who got me realizing that I have to learn to humbly depend on God. And for Peter who told me ever so simply, when I was feeling very troubled: "Pray to God. He will help you."

Gosh. And yes, God really answered my prayers. :)

In fact, I was very busy on Wednesday night. Was working overtime in the office. But decided to go to AMK park to just take time to pray and seek the Lord. And gosh, it was such a ministering time, reading the Bible and praying. "He restores my soul."

Stayed at the park till 11.30 pm, even though I was very busy with more stuff to clear. So went back, and did my stuff, till super-late. Was rushing the storybook as well.

But the amazing thing is, even though I had slept very little... the miraculous thing was, normally I'm concussed after so little sleep. But that day, it was different. My body felt naturally sleepy, but inside, I was mentally alert and the surprise is: becoming more and more awake!

Somehow, I don't know how, I really find that EVERY single time, when I pray for a couple of hours the night before, I literally feel so much more energy in me that I can do my work even more efficiently and effectively! The statistics are clear on this one.

So, I understand how Moses could have spent 40 days and nights in the very presence of God without having to eat or drink ANYTHING. For God's presence is literally so powerful... no, I'm not advocating lack of sleep is good. "For He grants sleep to those He loves." I'm just saying that prayer helps us enter into God's presence, and God's presence can be so real, and sustaining - not only spiritually, but also physically and mentally and emotionally too, as He so chooses to.

In fact, I think it was Martin Luther who said that I have SO much to do for today, that I simply have to pray for 5 hours a day. Otherwise I cannot do it!

Whoa.

Well, that's how our God is. :) He richly blesses all those who call on Him in truth...

Psa 65:2
O you who hear prayer,
to you all men will come.

Oh. One more testimony before I forget. I was rushing from work to CG today. So I took a cab. I had only $26 in cash in my wallet that night. So I prayed a quick prayer to God, "Lord, I pray that the taxi ride won't cost more than $20." I was wondering if He had heard my prayer...

Well, guess what? My taxi fare was $19.75. Yesh. And, as the change was only 25 cents, I told the taxi uncle, "Uncle, keep the change lah." He was pleasantly surprised, and thanked me.

So it really turned out to be $20 exactly. And a pleasantly blessed taxi-driver too! :) Not more than $20. Isn't God so COOL? He really can do more than all we ask or even imagine... PRAISE THE LORD INDEED! :D