From Selfish to Selfless

My friends, greetings!

I tell you, it is just amazing when you can look back over your life and see how far God has brought you. Personally, I thank God for bringing me this far and I thank God for his mercy and grace, and even when man gave up on me, God never did.

My friends, I have learned that when we pray, we must not be selfish and only pray for ourselves. I, of course, did not always pray for others, to be truthful with you. I prayed for only myself for a long, long, long time. I prayed for only me, "God, please give me this, God, please give me that, God, please bless me, God please .....me." It was all about me, me, me, me. I was what you called, "one-day Christian". I was only serious about prayer when I was in church. But to God be the glory. When I started feeding myself with the Word morning, noon and night, seven days a week, and became a student of the Word, selfishness had no place in my life.

One night at Bible Study, my pastor was teaching on praying. I was convicted, you know I was that one saying, "ouch". You see, Rev. Williams broke it down for me that I must stop focusing on myself so much when I pray. He said that we must learn how to pray for others. I never learned how to pray because I was not a student of the Word, I was not interested in following Jesus 100 percent. I was only interested at that time in putting on a show for others. Lord have mercy. God always breaks us down though, that's what I love about God, He brings us back right down from off our high horses. My friends, ever since I started praying for others, people I know and people I do not know, God has been blessing me, I have found a peace and joy within that is just awesome, no words can express the feeling. James 5:16 tells me, "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. Paul, my favorite apostle, always gives me encouragement and reminds me to pray for others. As disciples, that is exactly what we must do, we must pray for people, known and unknown, pray for things, known and unknown, and stop being selfish. God does not hear the prayer of a selfish person, but hears the prayer of a righteous, kind, selfless believer.

I thank God that now I have people requesting that I pray for them and their families, I have people, who I know and whom I do not know, requesting prayer from me and for that I thank God because that's God's goodness working in me. I will keep on praying for others, not only praying, but praying believing that God is hearing my prayers. I will continue to intercede on behalf of believers and non-believers. Being selfless makes you humble, we cannot serve God is we have no humility. Thank you Lord.

Ta ta,
Therese from Belize