Pastors' Blog

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6, NIV).

Paul’s words to the Philippians cut right to the heart of why prayer is so vital. He doesn’t say if we face anxiety or difficulty, but when. Whether celebrating or struggling, we are invited to bring our hearts before God in every situation. Prayer, then, isn’t merely about getting what we want; it’s about learning to entrust every part of our lives into the hands of a faithful God. Paul reminds us that prayer transforms worry into worship, replacing fear with faith and self-reliance with surrender.

But why do we pray? What does Scripture teach us about this essential practice?

1. We pray to build a relationship with God.

As conversation deepens human relationships, prayer strengthens our connection with our Creator. Jesus often withdrew to pray (Luke 5:16), not because He needed to inform the Father of anything, but because He desired communion with Him. Prayer is where relationship grows, where we listen, speak, and dwell in His presence.

2. We pray because God invites us to.

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). Prayer is not our idea; it’s God’s invitation. He longs for us to come, speak, and seek His face. The Creator of the universe bends His ear to listen to His children. That truth alone should draw us to our knees in gratitude and awe.

3. We pray to align our will with God’s will.

In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). True prayer doesn’t try to bend God’s will to ours; it reshapes our hearts to align with His purposes. As we pray, we are changed, our desires purified, our motives refined, and our priorities reordered according to His kingdom.

4. We pray because it brings peace.

Returning to Philippians 4, Paul continues, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”  (v. 7). When we pray, God’s peace, something the world cannot manufacture, fills our hearts. It doesn’t mean every problem disappears, but we no longer carry them alone.

5. We pray because it moves the hand of God.

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). While God is sovereign, He has chosen to work through the prayers of His people. Throughout Scripture, God responds when His people pray, healing the sick, delivering nations, and transforming hearts. Prayer is not passive; it is participation in God’s work.

Prayer is not a religious duty; it is a relational gift. The breath of our spiritual lives, the posture of dependence, keeps us close to our Father. In prayer, we find not just answers, but intimacy, relief, and renewal.

When did you last come to God in prayer, not seeking His gifts, but His presence?

When I was little, our family was always in church. Our minister loved preaching about the time of trouble. Know what? In time, his preaching became a time of trouble for me. I was scared witless. I didn’t want Jesus to come again. The thought scared me into the middle of next month.  
 
Well, as a body of believers, we do know (prophetically) quite a bit about the future and what’s coming down the pike. One of the better-known quotations from Ellen White says that usually trouble is worse in expectation than reality—but not this time. The trouble will be far worse than any of us can imagine. So, what do we do now: run for the hills?  
 
First, I want to encourage you to read the tail end of The Great Controversy: chapters 39 and 40. Daniel 12.1 tells us, “Jesus, who stands for God’s people, will stand up, and there will be a time of trouble worse than anything before, but at that time Your people will be delivered.” What a wonderful promise. Jesus will blot out the sins of the saints, so they are prepared. This, of course, is something that heaven would love to do for each one of us.  
 
God will step back and remove His restraints on Satan, who will proceed to bring about a terrible time of trouble. Those of us who persist in honoring all of God’s Law will be considered the cause of all the trouble (by people who hate and will persecute the saints). The term used is that we will be objects of “universal execration.” (Sounds bad, doesn’t it? Look it up.)  
 
Two forces will join to make it look like the saints are all at the point of destruction: Romanism in the old world and Apostate Protestantism in the new. They’ll combine to pass a universal decree that after a certain time, Sabbath keeping saints may all be put to death. The chapter says that for the saints, this is tantamount to the “time of Jacob’s trouble.” Jeremiah 30.7 says we will be saved out of it. (Another one of the “those” promises.) However, between now and then, we need to do everything we can to put ourselves in a proper light to our world to disarm prejudice and avert danger. Question: If trusting God is the only means of deliverance for us, are we working on developing that trust?  
 
Revelation 3.10 says, “I will keep you from the hour of temptation.” Temptation refers to the urge to walk away from God. Will you hang onto Him no matter what? Isaiah 27.5: “Take hold of my strength to make peace with me, and you will make peace with me.”  
 
Question: Why does God permit the saints to go through such a formidable time as awaits us? The final time of trouble consumes all the earthiness of the saints, so Jesus’ likeness is reproduced precisely in each of us. In sinners? Yes, in sinners.
 
Satan will impersonate the second coming of Jesus, and all the world will claim that the Savior has returned. The saints will recognize the falseness of what the enemy is doing. Rather than bowing the knee to him, we’ll become more than now, diligent students of Scripture and lovers of God’s truth.  
 
Last question: when it looks like God has forgotten us and we’re done for, Psalm 27.5 says the saints will hold their integrity in the face of death. Not only will our characters be transformed, but we will also come out of the time of trouble with a passionate hatred of sin and evil. It’s like when God took Israel out of Egypt; next, he had to take Egypt out of Israel, which was what the spring of Marah did for them. As the time nears, the bitter will do God’s work of grace for each of us, including you. Blessings!

Alumni Weekend is coming up soon. For me, it was 1995—and I remember those high school years as some of the happiest times of my life. We didn’t worry about much, except getting to the front of the cafeteria line for lunch and dinner. As a boarding academy, life revolved around living and sharing with friends. Classes and learning were just part of the daily routine—something we had to do, but not what defined us. We didn’t plan much for the future; if it wasn’t happening that day, it felt distant and almost unreal. College seemed like a mystery, and the idea of the year 2000? Unthinkable. Surely Jesus would have come before that big year!

Around this time of year—early September—we were gearing up for our class trip. Earlier that year, we’d made a decision: we wanted the whole class to go, no one left behind. That meant fundraising, and we knew some classmates would struggle to raise the money. So, we chose a different destination than previous years, cooked our own meals on some days, and did everything we could to save money and support each other. In the end, everyone was able to go—and it truly became a trip to remember. The choices we made and the unity we experienced brought us closer together and helped forge lifelong friendships.

Our class verse was a powerful one: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) When Joshua spoke these words to Israel’s leaders, he knew his time was short. He wanted to leave them with a challenge—to choose whom they would serve and be ready to live with the consequences.

In our school in Argentina, that verse became our senior class motto. In Spanish, it read: “Yo y mi 5nto serviremos a Jehová.” At the time, Argentina’s education system included seven years of elementary school and five years of high school—so the fifth year was our equivalent of senior year. Looking back, we were young, bold, and full of conviction. We wanted to declare to the world that we would serve the Lord. It was an honest desire, a noble aspiration. But the question remains: Did we do it?

Now, 30 years later, after forming families and building careers, are all of us still serving the Lord? The answer honestly and sadly is no—not always, and not all. Therefore, the next question is even harder: Are we, each of us who made that declaration, somehow responsible for the spiritual lives of our classmates?

What about you? Maybe your class didn’t have that specific motto. But what about your family? Your circle of friends? Your church? Your community? Your city? After all, we are our brother’s keeper.

Yes, salvation is personal. The desire to serve the Lord must come from the heart of each individual. But it’s also true that the people around us—their influence, their support, their example—can shape our decisions more than we realize.

My prayer is that it could be said of each one of us what was said of Joshua and his generation: “Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD did for Israel.” (Joshua 24:31)

Several years ago, a Michigander who had just pulled off the interstate (in Michigan) had stopped at the stop sign when suddenly a young fellow, messing with his phone, came barreling into her vehicle from behind. He rammed her and drove her into the path of an oncoming semi. The result was a broken neck and a whole lot of other injuries, which, as I understand, years later, she is still getting treatments for. Just in case you tend to mess with your phone when you’re driving, go online and see what the penalties are.

Three weeks ago, the same woman was involved in something similar—something we wouldn’t have expected. She was driving and reached down and picked up her phone.  A nearby police officer spotted what she did and pulled her over. It’s considered a distraction (and it is). She received a citation, which cost her $200, plus additional court costs of $250, and a misdemeanor was recorded on her driving record, along with a point or two, which negatively impacted her insurance costs. In addition to community service hours. The next infraction will be $1,000. The moral? Don’t even THINK about your phone when you’re driving a motor vehicle: it’s cheaper and a lot safer for everyone if you don’t.

On a related note…I live close enough to the University to either walk or ride my bicycle to and from. This provides me with an opportunity to observe the abysmal driving habits of some—like not stopping at a stop sign. I see people running stop signs all over the area. The stop sign located between Pioneer and the Andreasen Center is the one that drivers disobey most often. I pay special attention to this issue because I’m still working on consistently coming to a complete stop myself. When you’re a pedestrian, it’s usually possible to move out of the way if a driver doesn’t stop at the sign. If you’re cycling, it’s tougher to do that. I’m doing a lot better than before: I don’t want to hit a pedestrian or bicyclist or another vehicle—or even worse, a child. Someone has two signs on their front lawn: “Drive like your kids live here.” That makes a lot of sense. It’s a lot safer for all of us if we stop when we should. Do you stop—or do you just go on through? What about from this point forward? What kind of citizen are we?

This is one of those areas of life that may be, for some of us, a real challenge to bring into line. Here is where I think Jesus is ready and able to help us make the changes we absolutely need to. Just ask—and your trust in your ask will bring the transformations you need.

How about joining me in enhancing our safety practices on the road? We could be the means of saving someone’s life.