True Prayer

“True preaching is humiliation.  True prayer is humiliation.  True witness is humiliation.”  - Jaeson Ma, The Blueprint

  In my sophomore and junior years of college, I remembering having so much more courage in the areas of open air worship and prayer and preaching.  I remember worshipping outdoors on Hayden Lawn every Friday afternoon at 2pm for two hours for an entire semester.  Looking back, it almost seems surreal.  I must have looked clinically insane or, maybe worse, like a "radical" Christian.  Either way, all I knew was that I wanted to see ASU transformed.  And prayer and the preaching of the Gospel were the only ways I knew how to change anything. 

  One semester later, I was challenged by my friend Anthony to go open-air preaching on the sidewalks of ASU.  Anthony wanted to preach in front of the Memorial Union, one of the busiest areas on campus.  I remember the nervous sweats and shakings that overcame my body minutes before it was my turn to preach.  But as I stood atop those two walls, the natural flow of my words and testimony of Jesus calmed my nerves.  Afterwards, I had multiple people (5 or 6) come up to me and shake my hand.  They were mostly Christians who had been fed up with the normal angry street preachers.  But one was an atheist who had never heard a Christian talk about Jesus that way. 

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18

  I guess the reason I’m writing this is to remind myself (and, hopefully, all of us) of what true prayer, worship and preaching looks like.  Jaeson Ma writes in his book The Blueprint, “True preaching is humiliation.  True prayer is humiliation.  True witness is humiliation.”  I am convinced that true and honest prayer is sacrifice.  Not to say that every good follower of Jesus ought to preach on sidewalks and sing on open lawns.  But I think it takes some level of sacrifice to truly engage in prayer, preaching or worship.  Maybe your sacrifice isn't exactly singing out loud on Hayden Lawn in front of genuinely concerned (and possibly confused) passerbys.  Although it might be.  But if we really want to bring an offering to God, there must be some element of sacrifice.  Whether that sacrifice is your time, treasure or talent... a sacrifice must be made.

  So, fellow people of prayer, when you are praying, what sacrifice are you making?  What are you giving to him?  And how could you give Him more?