Laying it Down

Although I had not planned on going, I attended a seminar/message by Pastor Shin titled "Introduction to Spiritual Warfare." He urged us to lay down the worldly weapons we use about to bring change that we want.

The seven he listed were the following:

1. anger & rage
2. bitterness & unforgiveness
3. slander & gossip
4. jealousy & envy
5. self hatred & condemnation
6. despair & suicide
7. selfish ambition

In his message, he made an argument that in the world, we use these weapons when we want to bring about change. However, these weapons do not bring about good change in the world. As I listened to the message and as he went down the list, I thought that I wasn't really an angry or bitter person. However, he told a story of his daughter (maybe it was his son). His child was sick and had the fever for  a few days, but he wasn't concerned since it was less than 100 degrees. However, it persisted. His wife informed him that having a low persistent fever was as life threatening as having a high fever. Through that experience, Pastor Shin learned that low grade anger, bitterness, forgiveness, etc. was poisonous as well. 

Through attending this, I was really encouraged to lay down any weapons that I may be holding onto and to really pray for others. He shared a funny story of how God would place people to pray for during his college years. When God placed the people in his heart, he would pray for them for hours throughout the whole week. Then during a Friday meeting he attended, he would see the people show up! During the service/prayer, he phrased her - "a short Asian girl" would walk up to the person he was praying for and pray for them. As a result, the person would cry and she would get all the credit for praying for them. And then he said - "what do you do with a girl like this? I married her." This really encouraged me to really start praying for others because when we pray, God hears and answers our prayers. I believe that when we pray, God moves. Let's pray and have greater expectations because God will do big things in the months to come! Death can come at any moment, but so can life.