This Week With Jesus

A woman was once asked: What do you "gain" from praying to God regularly? She replied: Usually ′′ I don't earn anything ", but rather ′′ I lose things ". And she quoted everything she lost praying to God regularly: "I lost my pride. I lost my arrogance. I lost greed. I lost my urge. I lost ′′ my ′′ anger. I lost the lust. I lost the pleasure of lying. I lost the taste of sin. I lost impatience, despair, and discouragement". Sometimes we pray, not to gain something, but to lose things that don't allow us to grow spiritually.

With Thanksgiving around the corner next month, Pastor Rajiv talks about the importance of giving in a Christian's life.    As Thanksgiving approaches, we may consider submitting a part of our blessing to God, which, in todays world which is tantamount to sharing His Blessings with others as well. Pastor Rajiv talks about the importance and more, of sharing God's Blessings with others who may need what we will share.  Lets us thank the Almighty for deliverance from a pandemic which hit the world after a century; for our deliverance from it and other evils which may have befallen. From hunger, as even today 345 Million People Are in Hunger Crisis while the haves waste food (40% of the food produced in America is never eaten and. if just half of the food waste worldwide were recovered, we could end World Hunger).  In this context and background, Pastor Rajiv's message is ever so important. 

It is a done strategy in the software app industry that when you want to personalize a service, you usually add the word "my" before the name. For example - MySpace, mywhiteboard etc etc. Psychologically adding "my" creates a personal relationship. It also shows ownership. Drawing a parallel to our relationship with our creator, many of us need to personalize that - time set aside, cut off from the pressures of the outside world, when we can talk to Him in silence, relate to Him, be still in our hearts and hear Him.  It is very important that we build this personal relationship. This is where my prayer closet comes in. I go into it , shut out the world and focus on only Him. Matthew 6:6 talks about this with an outcome attached - "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly". Jesus reminds us that the Father touche